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Security report for iatistandard.org

International Aid Transparency Initiative · Government · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) operates as a global non-profit initiative focused on improving transparency in development and humanitarian aid. It provides a standardized framework and tools for publishing and accessing data on aid activities worldwide. The website reflects a mature and well-established organization with a clear mission to enhance accountability and decision-making through open data. The target audience includes development agencies, governments, civil society, and researchers. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and uses analytics platforms such as Matomo and Plausible for minimal user tracking. It is hosted with Cloudflare DNS services, ensuring good performance and security. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured, providing a professional user experience. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with a good SSL configuration but lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers in the HTML. There is no publicly available security policy or incident response information, and no vulnerability disclosure mechanism is evident. The WHOIS data indicates a consistent and legitimate domain registration dating back to 2010, supporting the organization's credibility. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and technically sound but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance measures and explicit security documentation to improve user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

6 findings 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  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. 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

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

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

Keep watching iatistandard.org

This scan found 21 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

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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
0
Security headers
40
Email security
65
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
55

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

IATI holds a strong position as a global standard for aid transparency, supported by a broad community of over 1,800 data publishers and more than one million published activities. Its business model is non-profit and government-oriented, focusing on open data standards rather than commercial revenue. The initiative's ecosystem includes tools for publishing, validating, and accessing data, as well as community engagement platforms. The website content and linked domains reflect a well-integrated partnership network with related data portals and community sites. Growth indicators include active governance, strategic plans, and ongoing tool development.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security posture with HTTPS enforced and Cloudflare DNS usage. However, the absence of DNSSEC and some recommended security headers reduces the overall security maturity. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure process indicates room for improvement in security governance and transparency. The use of reputable analytics platforms with minimal tracking aligns with privacy-conscious practices but lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to improve protection against common web attacks.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response information, including dedicated contact channels for security issues.
  5. Consider creating and hosting a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
International Aid Transparency Initiative
Description
IATI is a global initiative to improve the transparency of development and humanitarian resources and their results to address poverty and crises. It provides a standard for publishing data on development and humanitarian spending and projects.
Key services
IATI Standard development and maintenance, Publishing tools (IATI Publisher), Data validation (IATI Validator), Data registry (IATI Registry), Data access portals (d-portal, Country Development Finance Data), Community engagement and support
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Matomo Analytics, Plausible Analytics, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
IATI Design System v4.1.1
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No DNSSEC (not enabled)
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Plausible
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo, Plausible
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics, Plausible Analytics
Transparency
basic

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 navigation.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the homepage or main navigation.
  3. Contact information is primarily via contact forms; no direct emails or phone numbers found.
  4. Strong focus on transparency and open data standards for aid and development.
  5. Use of modern analytics tools with minimal tracking.
  6. Good technical implementation with responsive design and accessibility considerations.
  7. No security policy or incident response information publicly available.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  9. WHOIS data shows no privacy protection and consistent domain registration.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built with modern web standards and uses a custom or proprietary CMS or framework, as no common CMS signatures were detected. It leverages the IATI Design System for consistent UI components and styling. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. Performance is optimized with asynchronous and deferred script loading, responsive images, and mobile-friendly design. Analytics are implemented with privacy-respecting tools. The site shows good accessibility features and SEO optimization through proper meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks are minimal but could be further reduced by adopting DNSSEC and enhancing security headers.
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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