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Security report for helcom.fi

HELSINKI COMMISSION · Government · Finland

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in Security headers.

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

HELCOM is a well-established intergovernmental organization focused on the protection and sustainable management of the Baltic Sea environment. It serves as a bridge between policy and science, providing environmental assessments, policy coordination, and stakeholder engagement for the Baltic Sea region countries. The organization enjoys a strong market position as a regional authority with a history dating back to 1991. The website reflects this maturity with comprehensive content, clear navigation, and a professional design tailored to policy makers, scientists, and environmental stakeholders. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern plugins and libraries, including GDPR compliance tools and social sharing features. The infrastructure supports good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although hosting details are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs standard security best practices, including cookie consent mechanisms and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, there is an opportunity to enhance security posture by implementing a security.txt file and publishing incident response policies. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies aligned with GDPR requirements. Overall, the website and domain exhibit high legitimacy and trustworthiness, supported by consistent WHOIS data and transparent organizational information. The risk profile is low, with no critical security issues detected. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, formalizing vulnerability disclosure, and continuous monitoring of CMS and plugin updates to maintain security and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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

2 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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';…

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching helcom.fi

This scan found 14 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
95
Security headers
50
Email security
82
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
85

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

HELCOM operates as a government and non-profit entity focused on environmental protection of the Baltic Sea. Its competitive advantage lies in its intergovernmental mandate and scientific-policy integration. The business model revolves around policy coordination, environmental monitoring, and stakeholder engagement rather than commercial revenue generation. Target customers include national governments, environmental agencies, scientists, and regional stakeholders. Growth indicators include ongoing ministerial meetings, stakeholder conferences, and expanding data services. The partnership ecosystem includes EU bodies and regional organizations. The organization's operations are transparent and well-documented, supporting its authoritative market presence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of security headers (implied), and GDPR-compliant cookie management. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. The absence of a security.txt file and incident response information indicates areas for improvement in transparency and readiness. The site does not show signs of WAF blocking or security challenges, indicating stable accessibility. Overall, the security maturity is good, suitable for a government-related organization, but could benefit from formalized vulnerability disclosure and incident response documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Develop and publish an incident response policy and contact information.
  4. Maintain regular updates of WordPress core and plugins to prevent vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance performance optimization to improve user experience and SEO.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
HELSINKI COMMISSION
Registration number
9905033-0
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
HELSINKI COMMISSION
Description
HELCOM is an intergovernmental organization bridging policy and science on matters related to the environment of the Baltic Sea.
Key services
Environmental protection of the Baltic Sea, Policy coordination, Monitoring and assessment, Stakeholder conferences, Publications and data dissemination
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.7.2, jQuery 3.7.1, AddToAny sharing plugin, Moove GDPR Cookie Compliance plugin, Google Fonts (Share, Source Sans Pro), Polyfill.io, Custom theme 'helcom-teema'
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of GDPR cookie compliance plugin
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
WP Statistics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content
  2. Uses WordPress CMS with modern plugins
  3. Strong focus on environmental policy and Baltic Sea protection
  4. Comprehensive navigation and structured content
  5. Good privacy and cookie compliance mechanisms
  6. No signs of security blocking or WAF interference
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and transparency
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern WordPress CMS with up-to-date plugins for GDPR compliance and social sharing. The tech stack includes jQuery, Google Fonts, and polyfills for browser compatibility. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in caching and asset optimization. Hosting provider details are not explicit, but the domain uses reliable nameservers. The site structure is clear, supporting SEO best practices. Technical risks are minimal but require ongoing maintenance to avoid CMS-related vulnerabilities.
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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