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Security report for hi.no

Havforskningsinstituttet · Government · Norway

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Havforskningsinstituttet (HI) is a large, government-funded marine research institute based in Norway, recognized as one of the largest in Europe. The institute focuses on marine research, advisory services, and environmental monitoring, serving policymakers, researchers, and the public. The website reflects a professional and content-rich platform with comprehensive information about their activities, publications, and events. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including jQuery, Foundation CSS, and third-party tools like CookieYes and Monsido for consent and analytics. However, a critical security gap exists due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS support and lack of security headers, which significantly lowers the security posture. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear cookie consent mechanisms and a comprehensive privacy policy. Contact information and social media presence are clearly provided, enhancing business credibility. Overall, the site is trustworthy and authoritative but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of hi.no. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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

7 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 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 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

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

Keep watching hi.no

This scan found 21 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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  • 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
85
Security headers
15
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
65

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention hi.no, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
5
Employees
0
Customers
5
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
40%

2 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

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Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

HI holds a strong market position as a government marine research entity with a clear mission to support sustainable marine resource management. Their business model is primarily research and advisory services funded by public sources. The website indicates active engagement with stakeholders through publications, events, and data sharing. Partnerships with related marine initiatives and research centers are evident. The institute maintains a consistent brand and provides extensive content relevant to its audience. Growth indicators include active news updates and strategic plans. The presence of certifications like Miljøfyrtårn supports their environmental commitment. The digital presence is mature but could benefit from enhanced security and performance optimizations.

Security posture

The current security posture is weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate, which exposes users to risks of data interception and undermines trust. No security headers are implemented, and advanced SSL features like HSTS and OCSP stapling are missing. While no known vulnerabilities or malware are detected, the absence of HTTPS is a critical issue. The site uses cookie consent tools and respects privacy regulations, indicating some compliance maturity. Incident response and security policy pages are not found, suggesting limited transparency in security governance. Immediate remediation of SSL and security headers is recommended to elevate security maturity and protect users.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Implement essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Enable HSTS with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce secure connections.
  4. Add OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  5. Develop and publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Havforskningsinstituttet
Registration number
971 349 077
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern tech stack including jQuery, Select2, Foundation CSS framework, and Font Awesome icons. It uses CookieYes for cookie consent management and Monsido for analytics and heatmaps. The CMS appears to be Lime CMS based on internal comments. Performance is suboptimal with a page load time exceeding 5 seconds and a large page size (~281 KB). Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, with ARIA labels and responsive design elements. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The absence of HTTPS and security headers represents a significant technical risk. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires security and performance enhancements.
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. 70/100Medium31 findingsView report
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