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Security report for health.gov.au

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

67/100

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

The Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing operates as the national authority for health and aged care policy and services in Australia. The website serves as a comprehensive resource for public health information, government programs, and policy updates, targeting a broad audience including the general public, health professionals, and industry stakeholders. The department holds a strong market position as a government entity with authoritative content and trusted branding. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS with govCMS, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Facebook Pixel for analytics and marketing. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring a high-quality user experience. Hosting and infrastructure appear robust and aligned with government standards. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and follows best practices with secure forms and privacy policies. While explicit security headers are not visible in the HTML, it is likely they are configured server-side. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected. Privacy compliance is strong with clear policies and a vulnerability disclosure program. Overall, the website presents a low risk profile with high trustworthiness and professionalism. It effectively supports the department's mission to provide health information and services to Australians. Strategic recommendations include verifying security headers and maintaining up-to-date CMS components to sustain security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. 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 health.gov.au

This scan found 9 issues across 5 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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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
0
Email security
92
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
67

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 department operates within the government and healthcare sectors, providing essential public services and policy leadership. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public good and regulatory functions. The website supports transparency, public engagement, and information dissemination. The department benefits from strong government backing, a clear mandate, and a broad stakeholder ecosystem including other government agencies, health professionals, and the public. Growth indicators include ongoing public consultations and updated health initiatives. Partnerships are evident through linked consultation platforms and social media engagement. The department maintains a professional and authoritative online presence consistent with its role.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The presence of privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies indicates a proactive approach to security and compliance. Use of govCMS suggests adherence to Australian Government security standards. No critical vulnerabilities or compliance gaps were identified. However, explicit security headers should be confirmed and maintained. Incident response contacts and security policies are not explicitly found on the site, which could be improved for transparency. Overall, the site is secure and trustworthy for users.

Recommendations

  1. Verify and implement explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy at the server level.
  2. Publish or link to an incident response policy and security contact information to enhance transparency and readiness.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Maintain up-to-date CMS and module versions to prevent exploitation of known vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance data retention policy disclosures related to analytics and user data for improved privacy compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Description
Better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations.
Key services
Health policy and programs, Aged care legislation and support, Immunisation information, Public health consultations, Health news and media releases, Resources and publications
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 9, Drupal 10, govCMS, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, ReadSpeaker
Frameworks
govCMS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with CSRF tokens (implied by Drupal)
  • Privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Australian Government health department website
  2. Comprehensive health and aged care information
  3. Strong accessibility and mobile optimization
  4. Use of modern CMS and tracking technologies
  5. No security or content blocking detected
  6. Privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies present
  7. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 9 and 10 with govCMS, a government-specific CMS platform, ensuring compliance with Australian Government digital standards. It uses Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking, and Facebook Pixel for marketing analytics. The site loads efficiently with fast performance and excellent mobile responsiveness. Accessibility features are well implemented, including skip links and ARIA labels. The use of canonical links and meta tags supports SEO. The technical infrastructure is modern and well-maintained, minimizing technical debt and supporting scalability. Hosting is likely government-managed or via govCMS hosting services, ensuring reliability and security.
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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