Skip to main content

Security report for hpra.ie

Health Products Regulatory Authority · Healthcare · Ireland

Low risk. 1 critical or high finding in SSL/TLS.

Security score

80/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) is the official Irish government agency responsible for regulating medicines, medical devices, and other health products to ensure public and animal health safety. The website serves as a comprehensive resource for healthcare professionals, patients, industry stakeholders, and the general public, providing regulatory information, safety notices, and access to authorised medicine lists. The HPRA holds a strong market position as the national regulatory authority in Ireland, offering key services such as compliance enforcement, safety monitoring, and information dissemination. Technically, the website is built on the Sitefinity CMS platform and employs modern web technologies including JavaScript, Google Tag Manager for analytics, and CookiePro for consent management. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility features, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security measures include HTTPS enforcement, appropriate security headers, and cookie consent mechanisms, contributing to a robust security posture. Security evaluation reveals no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of a public vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact page suggests areas for improvement. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies aligned with GDPR requirements. Business credibility is high, supported by professional content, clear contact information, and trust indicators such as the official .ie domain and government affiliation. Overall, the HPRA website is a well-designed, secure, and trustworthy platform that effectively supports its regulatory mission. Strategic recommendations include establishing a public vulnerability disclosure program, enhancing incident response visibility, and maintaining up-to-date technical components to sustain security and compliance standards.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of hpra.ie. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 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

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

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

Keep watching hpra.ie

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

€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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
80
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
80

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

HPRA operates as a government regulatory agency within the healthcare sector, focusing on medicines and health product safety in Ireland. Its business model centers on regulatory oversight, compliance enforcement, and public safety communication. The agency targets healthcare professionals, patients, and industry stakeholders, providing authoritative information and regulatory resources. HPRA's competitive advantage lies in its official government mandate and comprehensive regulatory scope. The website reflects a medium-sized organization with a stable market presence. Partnerships and related domains are not explicitly identified, indicating a focused operational scope. Growth indicators include extensive content updates and active safety communications. The agency's strategic ecosystem is primarily governmental and healthcare-focused, emphasizing regulatory compliance and public trust.

Security posture

The HPRA website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implemented, including Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The use of cookie consent management aligns with privacy regulations. However, the lack of a publicly available security policy or incident response contact limits transparency in security governance. No evidence of malware, phishing, or other malicious activity was found. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy policies and data protection officer contact information. Overall, the security culture appears strong but could benefit from enhanced public-facing security documentation and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a public vulnerability disclosure policy to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  2. Create and publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance frameworks.
  3. Enhance visibility of incident response contacts, including security and abuse email addresses.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and CMS components to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Maintain and improve accessibility and mobile optimization to ensure broad user access and compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Health Products Regulatory Authority
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Health Products Regulatory Authority
Description
The HPRA is the Irish regulatory authority responsible for the regulation of medicines, medical devices, and other health products to protect and enhance public and animal health.
Key services
Regulation of medicines for human and animal use, Safety monitoring and safety notices, Authorisation and compliance enforcement, Information dissemination to healthcare professionals and public
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, CookiePro Consent Management, lazysizes (lazy loading images), Monotype Imaging Fonts
Frameworks
Sitefinity CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent management implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
CookiePro Consent Management
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenge.
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with consent mechanisms.
  4. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  5. WHOIS data unavailable or privacy protected, common for official domains.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Sitefinity).
  7. Good security posture with HTTPS and security headers.
  8. No public vulnerability disclosure or incident response page found.
  9. Contact information and DPO contact present and clear.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by the Sitefinity CMS platform, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as lazysizes for image lazy loading and Google Tag Manager for analytics. CookiePro is used for comprehensive cookie consent management, indicating attention to privacy compliance. The site employs responsive design techniques and accessibility features, contributing to a positive user experience. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in script loading and asset management. Hosting details are not explicitly identified, but the use of .ie domain and government affiliation suggests reliable infrastructure. Technical risks are minimal, though ongoing maintenance of CMS and third-party libraries is essential to prevent security and performance degradation.
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. 80/100Low26 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with hpra.ie. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review hpra.ie.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.