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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 SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

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 public health information, advisory committees, grants, and career opportunities, targeting a broad audience including health professionals, government stakeholders, and the general public. The content is comprehensive, professionally presented, and consistent with government standards. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), ensuring accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and a modern user experience. Integration with Google Tag Manager and analytics tools supports moderate user tracking for performance and engagement insights. The site is hosted on a secure .gov domain with HTTPS enforced, though DNSSEC is not enabled, and explicit security headers are not evident in the HTML content. From a security perspective, the website demonstrates good practices such as HTTPS enforcement and domain transfer protection. However, there is room for improvement in publishing explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and cookie consent mechanisms to enhance privacy compliance and user trust. The WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy and long-standing registration consistent with a government entity. Overall, the website is a high-quality, trustworthy government resource with strong content and technical foundations. Strategic enhancements in security transparency and privacy compliance would further strengthen its posture and user confidence.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of health.gov. View the latest report

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. 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. 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. 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

This scan found 17 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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Recommended

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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
0
Security headers
60
Email security
70
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

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 holds a strong market position as a federal government health authority, delivering policy leadership and public health resources. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and health promotion. The website supports multiple government offices and advisory committees, reflecting a broad partnership ecosystem within the federal health sector. The presence of extensive content, official branding, and multiple communication channels indicates a mature digital presence aimed at transparency and engagement. Growth indicators include active news updates, events, and community resources. The site’s integration with social media platforms and external government domains underscores its collaborative approach and outreach strategy.

Security posture

The security maturity of the website is good, with mandatory HTTPS and domain transfer protections in place. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of DNSSEC and explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options suggests opportunities for hardening. Privacy compliance is partial, with a comprehensive privacy policy but lacking cookie consent mechanisms and incident response contact details. The site does not expose any known vulnerable libraries and uses reputable third-party analytics. Overall, the security posture aligns with government standards but can be improved by adopting additional security headers and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish explicit security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  4. Publish an incident response policy and provide dedicated security contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ emails).
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics for privacy compliance and minimize user tracking where possible.

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, Grants and funding, Advisory committees, Health education and resources
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

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

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status serverTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

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 .gov domain
  2. Uses Drupal 10 CMS with USWDS for accessibility and design consistency
  3. HTTPS enabled with secure domain status
  4. Comprehensive health-related content and resources
  5. Multiple official social media channels linked
  6. No signs of WAF blocking or content restriction
  7. Privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies present
  8. No cookie consent mechanism detected
  9. No explicit security headers detected in HTML content
  10. Contact information clearly provided with official emails and phone numbers
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern and robust technical stack centered on Drupal 10 CMS and the U.S. Web Design System, ensuring accessibility and responsive design. Use of Font Awesome icons, Slick carousel for slideshows, and AOS for animations contribute to a polished user experience. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are integrated for user behavior tracking. The site is hosted on a government domain with HTTPS enforced, contributing to secure communications. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by rich media content and third-party scripts. There is no indication of technical debt or deprecated technologies. Opportunities exist to optimize performance further and enhance security headers for a more resilient infrastructure.
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. 75/100Medium24 findingsView report
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