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Security report for hs-aalen.de

Hochschule Aalen · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Hochschule Aalen is a German higher education institution offering a broad range of study programs across engineering, business, health sciences, informatics, and design. The website reflects a well-established academic entity with a strong regional and international presence, providing education, research, and continuing education services. The institution targets students, researchers, and professionals seeking academic advancement and career development. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Cookiebot for consent management and Matomo for analytics, hosted likely on academic or regional infrastructure. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and provides comprehensive content and navigation for its audience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and privacy compliance evident, though some security headers could be improved. Overall, the domain registration and DNS setup align with the institution's identity, supporting legitimacy and trust. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious elements were detected.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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 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';…
  3. 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 hs-aalen.de

This scan found 23 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
67
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
66

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 hs-aalen.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
145
Employees
0
Customers
68
Third parties
77
Weak passwords
10%

4 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for hs-aalen.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Hochschule Aalen operates as a medium-sized educational institution focused on applied sciences and technology education. Its business model centers on delivering bachelor, master, and continuing education programs, supported by active research and industry collaboration. The institution maintains partnerships with regional and academic entities, as evidenced by linked domains and event collaborations. The website's active news and event sections indicate ongoing engagement with students and the community. The presence of a Graduate Campus and professional development offerings suggests diversified revenue streams beyond traditional degree programs. The institution's digital presence is professional and consistent, reinforcing its market position as a reputable university in Germany.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent mechanisms in place. Use of Cookiebot ensures GDPR-compliant cookie management. Analytics are conducted via Matomo, a privacy-respecting platform. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were identified in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HSTS, and X-Frame-Options indicates room for improvement. There is no publicly visible security policy or incident response contact, which could enhance transparency and readiness. Overall, the security measures are adequate for an academic website but could be strengthened to mitigate advanced threats.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and provide dedicated incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and conduct periodic privacy compliance reviews to maintain high standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Hochschule Aalen
Description
Die Hochschule Aalen bietet vielfältige Studienangebote in den Bereichen Wirtschaft|Management, Gesundheit|Naturwissenschaften, Ingenieurwissenschaften|Zukunftstechnologien, Informatik|Künstliche Intelligenz und Design|Kommunikation an. Erfahren Sie mehr über unsere Studienangebote, Forschung, Internationalität und das Campusleben.
Key services
Bachelor- und Masterstudiengänge, Berufsbegleitende Studienangebote, Forschung und Transfer, Weiterbildung und Graduate Campus, Studentische Beratung und Services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery, Cookiebot, Piwik/Matomo Analytics, FontAwesome
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent management via Cookiebot
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik/Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik/Matomo
Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained university site with comprehensive academic and student services information.
  2. Strong focus on education, research, and community engagement.
  3. Use of modern cookie consent and analytics tools indicates good privacy awareness.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content or behavior.
  5. Active news and event updates demonstrate ongoing institutional activity.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Contentr CMS platform, utilizing JavaScript, jQuery, and FontAwesome for UI components. Cookiebot is integrated for cookie consent management, and Matomo (Piwik) is used for analytics, indicating a preference for privacy-conscious tools. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good accessibility practices. Hosting appears to be managed via academic or regional infrastructure, supported by BelWü nameservers. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in script loading and caching. The site structure and metadata support SEO well. No major technical debt or outdated technologies were observed, but security header implementation could be improved to reduce risk.
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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