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Security report for icnf.pt

Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, I.P. · Government · Portugal

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF) is a Portuguese governmental institute dedicated to the conservation of nature and forests. It serves as the national authority for environmental protection, forestry management, rural fire monitoring, and regulation of hunting and fishing activities. The website targets a broad audience including the general public, environmental professionals, and government stakeholders. It provides access to official information, geographic data services, and public support resources. The ICNF holds a strong market position as the authoritative body in its sector within Portugal. Technically, the website is built on AngularJS with supporting libraries such as jQuery and Progressbar.js. It uses modern web fonts and icons, and integrates Google Analytics for traffic monitoring. The site is mobile-optimized with a responsive design and clear navigation, though accessibility features are basic. Performance is moderate, with no critical technical issues detected. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks several security headers and does not display a cookie consent mechanism, which is important for GDPR compliance. There is no visible security policy or incident response contact information, and no vulnerability disclosure policy is published. These gaps represent areas for improvement to enhance the site's security posture and compliance. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and serves its governmental function well. The domain registration aligns with the official nature of the organization, reinforcing legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include implementing security headers, adding cookie consent, publishing security policies, and enhancing privacy compliance to strengthen trust and security.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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

9 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

  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';…

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Keep watching icnf.pt

This scan found 26 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
72
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
59

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

ICNF operates as a large government entity focused on environmental conservation and forestry management in Portugal. Its competitive advantage lies in its official mandate and comprehensive service offerings including rural fire data, protected area management, and regulatory oversight of hunting and fishing. The business model is public service oriented, funded by government resources. The target customers are citizens, environmental professionals, and governmental bodies. The website reflects a mature digital presence with partnerships linking to EU programs and national initiatives. Growth indicators include active public engagement through news, events, and geographic information services. The partnership ecosystem includes EU environmental programs and national conservation brands. The organization maintains a consistent brand and authoritative market presence in its sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces protection against common web attacks. The lack of a cookie consent mechanism and visible privacy compliance features indicates partial GDPR adherence. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, limiting transparency and preparedness. No known vulnerabilities or malicious content were detected. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but requires enhancements to meet best practices and regulatory requirements fully.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with EU GDPR and ePrivacy Directive.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Develop and expose a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and SEO optimization to improve user experience and reach.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, I.P.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, I.P.
Description
The ICNF is a Portuguese public institute focused on nature conservation, forestry management, rural fire indicators, protected areas, biodiversity, hunting and fishing regulation, and environmental support services.
Key services
Nature conservation, Forest management, Rural fire monitoring, Protected areas management, Hunting and fishing regulation, Geographic information services, Public information and support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
AngularJS, jQuery, Progressbar.js, Google Fonts, Material Icons
Frameworks
AngularJS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government portal for nature and forestry conservation in Portugal.
  2. Content is primarily in Portuguese with official contact details.
  3. No visible forms collecting personal data on the homepage.
  4. No explicit cookie consent banner found despite EU regulations.
  5. Uses AngularJS framework and modern web fonts/icons.
  6. Includes Google Analytics for traffic monitoring.
  7. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy.
  8. Footer contains multiple official links and contact information.
  9. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses AngularJS framework with supporting JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Progressbar.js. It employs Google Fonts and Material Icons for UI consistency. The site is custom-built without a known CMS, indicating tailored development. Performance is moderate with no critical errors, but modernization opportunities exist given AngularJS is an older framework. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. SEO is basic with meta viewport and charset tags but lacks advanced structured data or Open Graph tags. No hosting provider information was detected from the content. The site integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics purposes. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable but could benefit from modernization and enhanced SEO and accessibility features.
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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