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Security report for iarc.fr

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) · Healthcare · France

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

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is a specialized agency under the World Health Organization dedicated to cancer research, prevention, and capacity building worldwide. The website serves as a comprehensive resource for researchers, policymakers, and the public, offering scientific publications, training resources, and news updates. It holds a strong market position as a leading global authority on cancer research with a large organizational size and a long history dating back to 1965. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Bootstrap, and various JavaScript libraries for enhanced user experience. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though performance is moderate. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a clear privacy policy, cookie consent mechanisms, and GDPR considerations. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs cookie consent best practices. However, it lacks explicit security headers and publicly available security policies or incident response contacts. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected in the content or technical setup. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and authoritative with a high legitimacy score. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure process to further strengthen security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
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. 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 Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  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 iarc.fr

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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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
69

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

IARC operates as a non-profit governmental research agency within the healthcare and public health sectors. Its business model focuses on international collaboration, scientific research, and dissemination of knowledge through publications and training. The organization targets a global audience of researchers, health professionals, and policymakers. Its competitive advantage lies in its WHO affiliation, authoritative research outputs, and comprehensive capacity-building programs. The website reflects a mature digital presence with active social media engagement and a clear content strategy supporting its mission.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and privacy compliance mechanisms. The absence of critical vulnerabilities and exposed sensitive data is positive. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and absence of a published security or incident response policy represent gaps. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file is present, limiting transparency for security researchers. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved with formalized policies and enhanced HTTP headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program and consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance website performance optimization to improve loading speed and user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
International Agency for Research on Cancer
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
Description
IARC is a specialized cancer research agency of the World Health Organization focused on cancer research, prevention, and capacity building internationally.
Key services
Cancer research and surveillance, Publications and scientific monographs, Training and capacity building, International research collaborations, Public awareness and media resources
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, jQuery, Bootstrap, Slick Carousel, Swiper, SimpleLightbox, CookieConsent
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Analytics opt-out mechanism

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
ExactMetrics Google Analytics plugin
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Content is comprehensive and authoritative in cancer research.
  3. Strong affiliation with WHO and international public health.
  4. Good privacy and cookie compliance with user consent mechanisms.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  6. Social media presence is active and consistent with organizational branding.
  7. No security policy or incident response contact publicly available.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern front-end stack including Bootstrap, jQuery, Slick Carousel, and Swiper for interactive elements. Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are used for analytics and marketing tracking, with an opt-out mechanism implemented. The site is mobile responsive and accessible with good SEO practices. Hosting details are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, suggesting opportunities for optimization. No critical technical debt or outdated libraries were detected in the provided content.
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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