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Security report for icfo.eu

ICFO · Technology · Spain

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

ICFO is a leading research institute specializing in photonic sciences, offering comprehensive research programs, educational opportunities including master and PhD studies, and fostering innovation through industrial collaborations and spin-offs. The website reflects a mature digital presence with a well-structured, professional design and clear navigation, targeting researchers, students, and industry partners. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with the Divi theme and uses modern libraries and plugins to enhance user experience and performance. Security measures such as HTTPS and security headers are properly implemented, though explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly available. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but lacking a visible cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professionally maintained, with recommendations to enhance privacy compliance and security transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

8 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 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';…

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

Keep watching icfo.eu

This scan found 22 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.

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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
57
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
28
Average
49

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

ICFO holds a strong market position as a center of excellence in photonics research, supported by notable distinctions like the Severo Ochoa award. Its business model focuses on research excellence, education, and technology transfer through industrial collaborations and spin-offs. The website's multilingual support and extensive content indicate a broad target audience across academia and industry. The presence of partner domains such as jobs.icfo.eu and intraweb.icfo.eu supports its operational ecosystem. The institute's branding is consistent and content quality is excellent, reinforcing its credibility and reputation in the scientific community.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security posture with enforced HTTPS, presence of key security headers, and no visible exposure of sensitive data or vulnerable libraries. However, the absence of explicit security and incident response policies, as well as lack of dedicated security contact channels, indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. The site uses modern, well-maintained libraries and scripts, reducing the risk of known vulnerabilities. Overall, the security maturity is solid but could benefit from enhanced documentation and user communication regarding security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible and comprehensive cookie consent mechanism to enhance privacy compliance.
  2. Publish explicit security and incident response policies on the website to improve transparency and user trust.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents, such as a dedicated security@ or abuse@ email address.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and plugins to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to ensure compliance with standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ICFO
Description
ICFO is a frontier research center of excellence with research lines that encompass diverse areas in which photonics plays a decisive role.
Key services
Research groups and programs, Master and PhD studies, Industrial collaborations and spin-offs, Publications and scientific dissemination
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Divi Theme, jQuery, Select2, jQuery UI, Fancybox, QTip, Slick Slider, LazySizes
Frameworks
Divi, jQuery UI
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern libraries with no known vulnerabilities

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Google Site Kit
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional research institute site with comprehensive content
  2. Strong focus on photonics research, education, and innovation
  3. Multiple language support (English, Spanish, Catalan)
  4. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges
  5. Good use of modern web technologies and SEO practices
  6. Lacks explicit cookie consent banner
  7. No visible security or incident response policy pages
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in public content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress using the Divi theme, leveraging a variety of modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Select2, jQuery UI, Fancybox, QTip, and Slick Slider. It employs lazy loading for images and optimized CSS/JS delivery via Autoptimize. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good accessibility practices. Performance is moderate, with some room for improvement in loading times. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured JSON-LD schema. The technical infrastructure supports a professional and user-friendly experience, suitable for a large research institution.
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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