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Security report for hrw.org

Human Rights Watch · Non-profit · N/a

Low risk. No critical or high findings.

Security score

87/100

Risk levelLow

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

Human Rights Watch is a globally recognized non-profit organization dedicated to defending human rights in over 100 countries. The website serves as a comprehensive platform for publishing investigative reports, news releases, and advocacy materials. It targets a broad audience including the general public, human rights advocates, policymakers, and donors. The organization operates primarily through donations and maintains a strong international presence with multilingual support. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, employs modern analytics and tracking tools, and demonstrates good performance and accessibility standards. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and standard security headers, although explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly detailed. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-structured, supporting the organization's mission effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

No critical or high findings. These medium findings are worth fixing next.

  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.

    • Medium

      Missing X-XSS-Protection header

      Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

      What to do: Add "X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block"

    • Medium

      Missing Permissions-Policy header

      Controls browser features and APIs

      What to do: Implement a Permissions-Policy to restrict feature access

      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Permissions-Policy: accelerometer=(), autoplay=(), camera=(), cross-origin-isolated=(),…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Medium

      Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

      Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

      What to do: Update privacy policy to explicitly address GDPR requirements and user rights

  3. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Medium

      No MTA-STS Policy

      MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

      What to do: Implement MTA-STS to prevent downgrade attacks

  4. 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.

    • Medium

      SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

      SSL certificate expires in 32 days

      What to do: Plan SSL certificate renewal

Keep watching hrw.org

This scan found 13 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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Full report

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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
75
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
87

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

Human Rights Watch holds a leading position in the human rights NGO sector, leveraging extensive research and advocacy to influence global policies. Its business model is donation-driven, with clear calls to action for contributions. The website's multilingual capabilities and rich content indicate a mature digital presence. Partnerships include dedicated donation domains and use of reputable third-party services for analytics and marketing. The organization maintains a high level of professionalism and trust, supported by consistent branding and comprehensive content. Growth indicators include active news updates and engagement tools. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to enhance transparency around security and data protection practices.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers present, reducing common web vulnerabilities. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response plan, or vulnerability disclosure program limits transparency and may impact stakeholder confidence. The use of third-party analytics and marketing scripts is standard but requires ongoing monitoring to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved by publishing explicit policies and providing direct security contact channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information on the website.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide direct security contact emails or forms for reporting incidents.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to minimize vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency on data retention and privacy practices to strengthen compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Human Rights Watch
Description
Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 100 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice
Key services
Human rights investigations, Publishing reports and news releases, Advocacy and mobilization, Educational resources
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Simple Analytics, Drupal 10, Lite YouTube embeds
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Consent mechanism for cookies
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with CSRF tokens (implied by Drupal)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Simple Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads
Tracking pixels
Simple Analytics
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 rich content and no blocking detected
  2. Uses modern web technologies and analytics tools
  3. Strong focus on human rights advocacy and global coverage
  4. Multiple language support indicates international reach
  5. Donation mechanisms are clearly integrated
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage; contact via form
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies published
  8. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to privacy protection or query error
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring a solid technical foundation. It integrates Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Simple Analytics for comprehensive data collection and marketing insights. The use of lite YouTube embeds optimizes video content delivery. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is well addressed through meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. Technical risks are minimal but include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require vigilant security management. Opportunities exist to improve technical documentation and transparency around security and privacy configurations.
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. 87/100Low21 findingsView report
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