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Security report for ico.es

Instituto de Crédito Oficial · Finance · Spain

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) is a Spanish public financial institution dedicated to providing financing solutions to support investment projects and liquidity needs of self-employed individuals and SMEs. With a history spanning over 50 years, ICO plays a pivotal role in Spain's economic development by offering a comprehensive catalog of credit lines, direct financing, guarantees, and financial instruments managed on behalf of the State. The institution also engages with investors through green and social bond frameworks, emphasizing sustainability and responsible financing. Technically, the ICO website is built on the Liferay Portal CMS platform, leveraging modern web technologies including React, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Google reCAPTCHA for security and analytics. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, providing a professional and user-friendly experience. The use of asynchronous script loading and content delivery optimizations contribute to moderate performance. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS with strong SSL configurations and employs security best practices such as bot protection via reCAPTCHA and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly available, representing areas for improvement. The WHOIS data for the domain is not accessible due to registry restrictions by Red.es, but the website's government affiliation and content strongly support its legitimacy. Overall, ICO's digital presence is robust and trustworthy, reflecting its status as a key government financial institution. Strategic recommendations include publishing clear security and incident response policies, enhancing transparency around data protection officers, and implementing a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting.

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

7 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

    • 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

  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 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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  • 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
77
Security headers
65
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
70

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 ico.es, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
199
Employees
0
Customers
195
Third parties
4
Weak passwords
23%

5 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

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

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Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

ICO holds a strong market position as Spain's official public financial institution supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs. Its business model focuses on providing credit lines, guarantees, and financial instruments aligned with government economic policies and sustainability goals. The institution targets self-employed individuals, SMEs, and investors, offering tailored financing products and investor relations services. ICO's partnerships with entities like Axispart and Fundación ICO extend its ecosystem. The website content and navigation reflect a mature organization with a clear strategic focus on growth, sustainability, and digital transformation. Revenue streams likely derive from government funding and financial product fees. The institution's 50-year history and government backing provide competitive advantages and trust in the market.

Security posture

The ICO website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of Google reCAPTCHA to mitigate automated abuse, and no visible exposure of sensitive information. Security headers are inferred to be present, contributing to protection against common web attacks. However, the absence of publicly available security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure channels limits transparency and may hinder rapid incident handling. No vulnerable or outdated libraries were detected in the scripts loaded. The site employs modern asynchronous script loading to reduce attack surface. Overall, ICO maintains a good security baseline but should enhance its security governance transparency to align with best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and user trust.
  2. Implement and publicly link a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents, including dedicated security or abuse email addresses.
  4. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms with granular user controls and detailed information on tracking technologies.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Instituto de Crédito Oficial
Description
Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) is a Spanish public financial institution that provides financing products to support investment projects and liquidity needs of self-employed individuals and SMEs.
Key services
ICO Lines of Credit, Direct Financing, Guarantee Lines, Financial Instruments managed on behalf of the State, European Funds Channeling, Investor Relations including Green and Social Bonds
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google reCAPTCHA, jQuery, Bootstrap, YUI, Liferay Portal, Slick Carousel, Metal.js, React 16.12.0, Clay UI
Frameworks
Liferay Portal
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async script loading
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation.
  2. Strong government affiliation and branding consistency.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks.
  4. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent mechanisms.
  5. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on main pages.
  6. No explicit security or incident response policies found.
  7. WHOIS data is unavailable due to registry restrictions, not due to privacy protection.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The ICO website is built on the Liferay Portal CMS, integrating a modern tech stack including React, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Google reCAPTCHA. The site uses asynchronous script loading and content delivery optimizations to improve performance. Mobile optimization and accessibility are well addressed, providing a good user experience across devices. SEO practices are implemented with proper meta tags and language alternates. The site structure is complex with multi-level navigation menus supporting extensive content. No hosting provider details were identified from the content. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the extensive use of third-party scripts and rich content. Technical risks are low, but continuous monitoring of dependencies and security headers is recommended to maintain robustness.
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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