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Security report for hhs.gov

Department of Health & Human Services · Government · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is a U.S. federal government agency dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of Americans. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for health programs, services, grants, regulations, and public health information. It targets the general public and stakeholders in the healthcare sector, positioning itself as the authoritative source for health-related government services and information. The site is well-branded, professionally designed, and consistent with government standards, reflecting its enterprise-level scale and importance. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics, and Crazy Egg for performance and user behavior tracking. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with a moderate performance profile. Security is robust with HTTPS enforced and secure cookie configurations, although explicit security headers could be more visible. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy, though a cookie consent mechanism is not evident. The security posture is strong, with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. The domain uses a .gov TLD, which is tightly controlled and indicative of high legitimacy. WHOIS data is not publicly available, which is typical for .gov domains. The site is free from WAF blocking or security challenges, allowing full content access. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of trustworthiness, professionalism, and compliance suitable for a critical government health agency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • 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

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

Keep watching hhs.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

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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
90
Security headers
30
Email security
83
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
74

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

HHS holds a dominant position as the primary federal health agency in the United States, providing essential health and human services to the public. Its business model is government-funded and focused on public service rather than commercial revenue. The agency offers a wide range of services including health programs, grants, regulatory information, and public health resources. The website supports transparency and engagement through extensive contact options and social media presence. Partnerships with other government health entities and agencies are evident through linked domains. The site reflects a mature digital presence with strategic use of analytics and marketing tools to enhance outreach and service delivery.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, secure cookie settings, and use of reputable analytics and tag management tools. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were detected in the HTML content. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not clearly visible and could be improved. Incident response contact information and security policies are not prominently displayed, representing an area for enhancement. The domain's .gov status and consistent branding further reinforce trust and legitimacy. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced transparency around security policies and incident response.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and display a cookie consent banner to enhance privacy compliance and user transparency.
  2. Publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen security posture.
  3. Add clear incident response and security contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Maintain and update WHOIS and domain registration information where possible to support trust and legitimacy.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Department of Health & Human Services
Description
U.S. federal government department focused on health and human services, providing programs, services, grants, and regulatory information.
Key services
Health programs and services, Grants and contracts, Regulations and laws, Public health information dissemination
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics, Crazy Egg, Drupal CMS, US Web Design System (USWDS), Modernizr, Chosen jQuery plugin
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure cookie configuration (secure_cookie=true in config)
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with async loading
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Siteimprove Analytics, Crazy Egg, Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Siteimprove Analytics, Crazy Egg, Google Analytics (via GTM)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official US government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive health and human services content
  3. Strong branding and consistent design
  4. Multiple official social media accounts linked
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No visible security or privacy policy gaps
  7. WHOIS data unavailable but expected for .gov domain
  8. No WAF or blocking detected
  9. No cookie consent banner detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal CMS platform, utilizing US Web Design System for consistent government styling and accessibility. It integrates multiple analytics and tracking tools including Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics, and Crazy Egg, indicating a focus on performance monitoring and user experience optimization. The site is mobile responsive and optimized for accessibility, with semantic HTML and ARIA roles. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to reduce blocking. The technical infrastructure is robust, but hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical implementation supports a large-scale, enterprise government website with good maintainability and user experience.
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. 75/100 −7Medium22 findingsView report
  2. 82/100Low19 findingsView report
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