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Security report for hkdir.no

Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse · Government · Norway

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse (HK-dir) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for national administration and policy implementation in higher education, vocational education, and competence development. Established in 2021 through a merger of several entities, HK-dir serves as a central authority coordinating education and workforce competence initiatives across Norway. The website reflects a professional government presence with comprehensive information tailored for professionals in education and related sectors. Technically, the site uses modern frameworks such as Next.js and Sanity CMS, ensuring good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers and explicit policies could be improved. Privacy compliance is robust with a detailed GDPR-compliant privacy policy, though a cookie consent mechanism is not evident. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-maintained, and serves its public sector mission effectively.

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

8 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 hkdir.no

This scan found 20 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
82
Security headers
35
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
70

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

HK-dir occupies a key position as a national government directorate in Norway, focusing on higher education and competence policy. Its business model is public sector administration and policy execution, with no commercial revenue streams. The target audience includes educational institutions, professionals in education and workforce development, and the general public seeking information on education policies and programs. The agency offers services such as managing admissions, recognizing foreign education, and providing statistical reports. The website's content quality and navigation support its authoritative role. Partnerships with entities like Samordna opptak and EU programs (Erasmus+) are evident, enhancing its operational ecosystem. The organization's medium size and multiple office locations indicate a significant operational footprint within the Norwegian government framework.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, no exposed sensitive data, and use of deferred script loading to optimize security and performance. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HSTS, and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file is present, which could enhance transparency and incident response readiness. The privacy policy is comprehensive and GDPR compliant, indicating strong data protection practices. No signs of malware, phishing, or other security threats were detected. Overall, the security posture is solid for a government website but could benefit from enhanced header policies and formal vulnerability disclosure mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen defense-in-depth.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR cookie requirements.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included.
  5. Enhance incident response documentation and provide clear security contact channels.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse
Registration number
974788985
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse
Description
Vi har et samlet, nasjonalt ansvar for forvaltningsoppgaver innen høyere utdanning, høyere yrkesfaglig utdanning og kompetansepolitikk.
Key services
Higher education and research administration, Higher vocational education, Competence in working life, Adult education, Career guidance and educational choices, Recognition of foreign education
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (Next.js), Google Fonts, Siteimprove Analytics
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data found in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts
  • Use of deferred script loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Siteimprove Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Siteimprove Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Norwegian government directorate for higher education and competence.
  2. Content is comprehensive, professionally presented, and well-structured.
  3. Privacy policy is detailed and GDPR compliant.
  4. No visible cookie consent mechanism found.
  5. Contact information is complete and includes emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  7. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  8. Uses modern web technologies including Next.js and Sanity CMS.
  9. Social media presence on Facebook and LinkedIn.
  10. No signs of adult or questionable content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Next.js, a modern React framework, and uses Sanity CMS for content management, indicating a modern and scalable technical infrastructure. Google Fonts are used for typography, and Siteimprove Analytics is employed for performance and accessibility monitoring. The site loads scripts asynchronously and defers non-critical JavaScript, improving load times. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well implemented, with skip links and semantic HTML elements. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting provider details are not explicit, but the site uses HTTPS with a presumably strong SSL configuration. Overall, the technical stack is modern, performant, and well-suited for a government information portal.
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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