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Security report for haw-hessen.de

HAW Hessen · Education · Germany

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

HAW Hessen is a consortium of six Hessian Universities of Applied Sciences focused on providing applied higher education, research, and cooperative doctoral programs. The website serves as an informational portal for the consortium, targeting students, academic partners, and stakeholders in the Hessen region of Germany. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS with Bootstrap and jQuery, offering a modern, responsive, and accessible user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though the absence of explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms suggests room for improvement. The WHOIS data aligns well with the academic nature of the site, showing consistent domain registration and hosting. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-positioned within the education sector.

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 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. 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 haw-hessen.de

This scan found 23 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
75
Email security
60
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
67

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 haw-hessen.de, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for haw-hessen.de right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

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

The consortium model leverages collaboration among regional universities to strengthen applied sciences education and research in Hessen. The site highlights key member institutions and their joint initiatives, such as mentoring and dual study programs. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on academic cooperation and public education. The presence of multiple partner domains and structured navigation indicates a mature partnership ecosystem. Growth indicators include recent additions of member institutions and active promotion of research centers. The site lacks direct revenue streams or commercial services but serves as a central hub for academic collaboration.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data. However, the lack of visible security headers like Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options reduces defense in depth. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is provided, which could hinder timely reporting and mitigation of security issues. GDPR compliance is indicated by the presence of a privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are missing. The absence of contact information for security incidents is a gap in incident response readiness. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an informational academic site but could be enhanced with additional controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR cookie requirements.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve security posture.
  3. Provide explicit contact information or a dedicated security contact for incident reporting.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability reporting.
  5. Enhance transparency by including terms of service and security policy documents accessible from the website.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
HAW Hessen
Description
HAW Hessen is a consortium of six Hessian Universities of Applied Sciences, including Hochschule Darmstadt, Evangelische Hochschule Darmstadt, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Hochschule Fulda, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen, Hochschule RheinMain, and Hochschule für öffentliches Management und Sicherheit. They focus on scientific continuing education, research, and cooperative study programs.
Key services
Higher education, Research, Scientific continuing education, Cooperative doctoral programs, Mentoring and dual study programs
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Bootstrap, jQuery
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is primarily in German and focused on higher education and research.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on the main page.
  4. Privacy policy is present and linked externally on h-da.de domain.
  5. No cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy detected.
  6. No visible forms collecting user data on the homepage.
  7. Use of modern CMS TYPO3 with Bootstrap and jQuery for UI.
  8. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
  9. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML.
  10. Security headers not visible in the HTML content; likely configured at server level.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses TYPO3 CMS, a robust and widely used content management system, combined with Bootstrap and jQuery for frontend responsiveness and interactivity. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with multiple CSS and JS assets loaded asynchronously. No major technical debt or outdated libraries were detected. Hosting appears to be managed by Hochschule Darmstadt infrastructure, consistent with the academic nature of the site. Opportunities exist to modernize security headers and implement cookie consent mechanisms to align with best practices.
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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