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Security report for hailstate.com

Mississippi State University Athletics · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Mississippi State University's official athletics website serves as a comprehensive digital platform for fans, students, and alumni to access sports schedules, rosters, news, and multimedia content related to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The site is well-positioned as the authoritative source for university athletics information, leveraging a modern technical infrastructure including Vue.js and AWS hosting. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and domain management best practices, though DNSSEC is not enabled and some security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is strong with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms in place. Overall, the site reflects a professional and trustworthy brand consistent with a large educational institution's athletics department.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 100 · Medium
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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching hailstate.com

This scan found 24 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.

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  • 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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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
72
Security headers
25
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The website targets sports enthusiasts and university stakeholders, offering services such as ticket sales, media streaming, and fan engagement initiatives. It operates within the education and media sectors, supported by partnerships with recognized entities like adidas, Learfield, and the SEC Network. The business model focuses on providing official sports content and facilitating fan interaction and donations. The domain's age and registration details align with the institution's history, reinforcing credibility. The site’s ecosystem includes multiple partner domains that support marketing, merchandise, and event management, indicating a well-integrated operational framework.

Security posture

The website maintains a good security baseline with HTTPS and domain status protections. However, the absence of DNSSEC and some recommended HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Referrer-Policy represent areas for enhancement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are implemented, supporting regulatory compliance. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure information are not publicly available, which could be improved to enhance transparency and security readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing attacks.
  2. Implement Content-Security-Policy and Referrer-Policy HTTP headers to mitigate cross-site scripting and information leakage risks.
  3. Publish a clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy to improve security transparency and community trust.
  4. Consider adding explicit contact information for security and general inquiries to enhance user trust and support.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to ensure compliance with privacy regulations and minimize user tracking.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Mississippi State University Athletics
Description
The official athletics website for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, providing sports schedules, rosters, news, media, and fan engagement resources.
Key services
Sports schedules and results, Team rosters and stats, Ticket sales and promotions, Media content including video and podcasts, Fan engagement and donation portals
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Vue.js, Sidearm Sports platform, AWS DNS hosting, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Vue.js
Platforms
Sidearm Sports CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Sidearm Ads, HTLBid
Tracking pixels
Transcend
Marketing tools
Transcend Consent Management
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official athletics website for Mississippi State University
  2. Comprehensive sports coverage with schedules, rosters, and media
  3. Use of modern JavaScript frameworks and CDN hosting
  4. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent mechanisms
  5. No visible security challenges or WAF blocking
  6. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities
  7. DNSSEC not enabled, which is a minor security gap
  8. Multiple external trusted domains linked for partnerships and services
  9. Advertising and tracking are present but managed with consent
  10. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern JavaScript framework (Vue.js) and hosted on AWS infrastructure, ensuring scalability and reliability. It uses the Sidearm Sports CMS platform specialized for collegiate athletics. Performance is moderate with good mobile responsiveness and accessibility features. SEO is well addressed through proper meta tags and structured navigation. The site integrates multiple external services for advertising, analytics, and content delivery, managed with user consent. Technical debt appears low, but security header implementation and DNSSEC activation represent modernization opportunities to reduce risk.
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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