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Security report for heia-fr.ch

Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Fribourg · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Fribourg (HEIA-FR) is a reputable Swiss higher education institution specializing in engineering and architecture. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for prospective and current students, researchers, and partners, offering detailed information on Bachelor and Master programs, applied research institutes, events, and continuing education. The institution positions itself as a dynamic and innovative partner in education and research within the Fribourg region. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and Axeptio for cookie consent management, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and accessible, reflecting a mature digital presence. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms but lacks explicit security headers and published security policies, which could be improved to enhance trust and compliance. Overall, the domain registration aligns with the institution's identity, reinforcing legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

  2. 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

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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
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
73

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

HEIA-FR operates in the education sector, focusing on engineering and architecture disciplines. It offers a range of academic programs from Bachelor to Master levels, supported by applied research institutes that collaborate with industry. The institution benefits from partnerships, notably with HES-SO, enhancing its academic and research capabilities. The website's multilingual support indicates a broad target audience including local and international students. The business model is primarily public education and research funding, with additional revenue from continuing education and events. The institution's market position is strong regionally, with a clear brand and consistent messaging. The presence on multiple social media platforms and active event promotion suggest a proactive engagement strategy. No direct revenue or financial data is available, but the comprehensive service offering and partnerships indicate a stable operational model.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good baseline security posture with HTTPS enforced and a cookie consent mechanism implemented via Axeptio, indicating awareness of privacy regulations such as GDPR. However, the absence of visible security headers like Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement in hardening the site against common web attacks. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy is published, which could hinder coordinated vulnerability reporting. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The site does not appear to be behind a WAF or present any blocking challenges, allowing full content access. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an educational institution but could be enhanced with additional headers and published security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service to improve transparency and compliance.
  2. Add standard security headers such as CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen web security.
  3. Publish a security policy and vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance cookie consent details to explicitly state GDPR compliance and data retention policies.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Fribourg
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Fribourg
Description
La Haute école d’ingénierie et d’architecture de Fribourg (HEIA-FR) offre un environnement stimulant et convivial. Etudiant·es, enseignant·es et équipes de recherche mènent des projets concrets qui répondent aux défis de la société.
Key services
Bachelor and Master degree programs, Continuing education, Applied research, Student projects, Information sessions and events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Axeptio cookie consent, FontAwesome icons, Owl Carousel, JavaScript, CSS bundles
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
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. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is comprehensive and relevant to engineering and architecture education.
  3. Multiple language options available (fr, en, de, it).
  4. Social media presence is active and linked.
  5. Cookie consent is implemented via Axeptio.
  6. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found on the homepage.
  7. Contact information is clearly provided in the footer.
  8. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack with JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as Owl Carousel and FontAwesome for UI components. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and tracking, while Axeptio manages cookie consent, indicating compliance with privacy laws. The site structure and class names suggest the use of Umbraco CMS, a robust platform for content management. Performance is moderate with optimized images and responsive design, ensuring good mobile experience. SEO is supported by meta tags, Open Graph data, and JSON-LD structured data for search engines. Accessibility features appear to be implemented with semantic HTML and ARIA roles. Hosting details are not explicitly available, but the site uses HTTPS with a valid certificate. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and user-friendly website suitable for an educational institution.
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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