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Security report for health.gov

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health · Government · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) operates as a key component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, providing leadership on health policy, programs, and initiatives aimed at improving the health and well-being of Americans. The website serves as an authoritative source for health information, advisory committees, grants, and career opportunities, targeting a broad audience including the general public, health professionals, and government stakeholders. The site maintains a strong market position as an official government resource with comprehensive content and clear navigation. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and leverages the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) to ensure accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and consistent branding. Integration with Google Tag Manager and Digital Analytics Program indicates moderate user tracking and analytics capabilities. Performance is moderate with good SEO and accessibility features, though there is room for improvement in security headers and DNS security. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and has domain transfer protections in place. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and security headers are not explicitly detected, representing areas for enhancement. The presence of a vulnerability disclosure policy is a positive indicator, though incident response contact details are not found. Privacy compliance is partial, with a comprehensive privacy policy but no detected cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and content quality consistent with a U.S. government health agency. Strategic improvements in DNS security, security headers, and privacy consent mechanisms would further strengthen its security posture and compliance standing.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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';…

  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

  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 health.gov

This scan found 18 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

€39.90one-time

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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
65
Email security
70
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
75

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

OASH is positioned as an essential government entity within the healthcare sector, focusing on public health leadership and policy. Its business model revolves around providing authoritative health information, managing advisory committees, and facilitating grants and career opportunities. The website reflects a mature digital presence with consistent branding and extensive content relevant to its audience. Partnerships with other HHS offices and government agencies are evident, reinforcing its ecosystem. The site’s longevity since 1997 and .gov domain status enhance its credibility. Growth indicators include active news updates and engagement through social media channels. The absence of commercial activities aligns with its government mandate.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate to good security posture with mandatory HTTPS and domain transfer protections. The lack of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are notable gaps. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The presence of a vulnerability disclosure policy indicates a proactive security approach. However, the absence of incident response contact information and cookie consent mechanisms suggests areas for compliance improvement. Overall, the security maturity is appropriate for a government site but can be enhanced to meet higher standards and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  4. Publish clear incident response and security contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and response.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
Description
To improve the health and well-being of Americans by leading on policy, practices, and programs through the application of science, innovation, education and a commitment to all.
Key services
Health policy leadership, Public health programs, Nutrition and physical activity guidance, Advisory committees, Grants and funding information, Career opportunities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Font Awesome 6, US Web Design System (USWDS), AOS (Animate On Scroll)
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, USWDS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status serverTransferProhibited
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy published

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government health website with extensive health policy and resource content.
  2. Uses Drupal 10 CMS with USWDS for design consistency and accessibility.
  3. HTTPS enabled with valid SSL certificate.
  4. No WAF or blocking detected; full content accessible.
  5. Privacy policy and vulnerability disclosure policy present.
  6. No cookie consent mechanism detected.
  7. Multiple official social media channels linked.
  8. No explicit or adult content detected.
  9. WHOIS data shows privacy protection but domain age and status indicate legitimacy.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform, utilizing the U.S. Web Design System for consistent and accessible UI/UX. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for user tracking and performance monitoring. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in load times and script optimization. The hosting environment appears to be government-managed with HHS name servers. Technical debt is minimal, but security enhancements and cookie management are recommended to reduce compliance risks.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 62/100Medium23 findingsView report
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