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Security report for gwdg.de

Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

GWDG is a specialized IT service provider and research support center serving the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. It offers a broad range of information and communication services tailored to scientific research and education, supported by its own research in practical and applied computer science. The organization is positioned as a key regional IT competence center with strong institutional affiliations and ISO certifications, reflecting a high level of professionalism and trust. Technically, the website is built using the Hugo static site generator, enhanced with modern JavaScript libraries such as Swiper.js and FontAwesome for UI elements. The site demonstrates excellent performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility, with proper use of HTTPS and resource integrity checks. However, some security headers are missing, and no cookie consent mechanism is present, which are areas for improvement. From a security perspective, the site maintains a strong posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. The presence of ISO 27001 certification indicates adherence to recognized security standards. Nonetheless, the absence of explicit incident response contacts and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms suggests room to enhance transparency and readiness. Overall, GWDG presents a low-risk profile with a well-maintained digital presence aligned with its institutional mission. Strategic recommendations include implementing cookie consent for GDPR compliance, adding security headers, publishing incident response information, and introducing a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  2. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching gwdg.de

This scan found 25 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Full report

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
82
Security headers
55
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
64

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention gwdg.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,958
Employees
60
Customers
1,547
Third parties
351
Weak passwords
13%

Latest record dated 2026-06-12 · 123 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for gwdg.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –email.gwdg.de2026-06-12
  • –sso.gwdg.de2026-05-27
  • –captive-portal.gwdg.de2026-05-20
  • –gwdg.de2026-05-15
  • –5.gwdg.de2026-01-12

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

GWDG operates in the education and technology sectors, focusing on providing IT infrastructure and services to academic and research institutions. Its competitive advantage lies in its dual role as a service provider and research entity, enabling innovative and customer-focused IT solutions. The business model centers on supporting scientific computing, data management, and communication services, targeting universities and research organizations. Growth indicators include active news updates, job postings, and event hosting. Partnerships with the University of Göttingen and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft strengthen its ecosystem. The company maintains a medium size with a clear institutional identity and strong trust signals such as ISO certifications and professional web presence.

Security posture

The security maturity of GWDG is high, supported by ISO 27001 certification and enforced HTTPS. The website does not expose sensitive information and uses integrity attributes for scripts and stylesheets. However, the lack of certain security headers (e.g., Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options) and absence of a cookie consent mechanism are notable gaps. No public incident response or vulnerability disclosure information was found, which could hinder rapid response to security issues. Overall, the organization demonstrates a solid security culture but should enhance transparency and compliance measures to align fully with GDPR and best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and improve user privacy transparency.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen browser security.
  3. Publish clear incident response contact information and establish a vulnerability disclosure policy, including a security.txt file.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and dependencies to avoid potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and continue monitoring SEO and performance metrics to maintain high user experience standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen
Description
Hochschulrechenzentrum für die Georg-August-Universität Göttingen und Rechen- und IT-Kompetenzzentrum für die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, bietet Informations- und Kommunikationsleistungen für die Wissenschaft, eigene Forschung im Bereich Praktische und Angewandte Informatik, umfangreiches Beratungs- und Betreuungsangebot.
Key services
IT-Infrastruktur, Hochschulrechenzentrum, Informations- und Kommunikationsleistungen, Forschung im Bereich Informatik, Beratung und Betreuung wissenschaftlicher Datenverarbeitung
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Hugo 0.152.0, FontAwesome, Swiper.js
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of integrity attributes on CSS and JS

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Content is focused on scientific IT services and research support.
  3. Strong trust indicators including ISO certifications and institutional affiliations.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  5. No cookie consent mechanism detected, which could be improved for GDPR compliance.
  6. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Hugo static site generator, which provides fast and secure content delivery. It uses modern front-end libraries like Swiper.js for interactive sliders and FontAwesome for icons. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with proper meta tags for SEO and social sharing (Open Graph, Twitter cards). The use of integrity attributes on CSS and JS files indicates attention to resource security. No CMS vulnerabilities are present due to static site architecture. Hosting details are not explicit, but the domain uses DENIC-managed nameservers consistent with the organization. Performance is fast, and the site structure is clear and well-organized, supporting a positive user experience.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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