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Security report for icos-belgium.be

ICOS Belgium · Energy · Belgium

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 1 other check.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ICOS Belgium is a key part of the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a European research infrastructure focused on monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon cycle. The website serves researchers, educators, and policy makers by providing access to data, event information, and outreach activities. The organization is affiliated with the University of Antwerp and operates multiple monitoring stations across Belgium and beyond. The site is professionally designed with clear navigation and relevant scientific content, positioning ICOS Belgium as a credible and important player in climate research. Technically, the website uses legacy JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 1.11.0 and Modernizr 2.6.2, along with Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking. While the site is accessible and functional, it lacks modern security headers and cookie consent mechanisms, which are important for compliance and user trust. The site appears to be hosted under the BELNET registrar, consistent with its academic and research nature. From a security perspective, the site benefits from HTTPS but shows weaknesses such as outdated libraries and missing security headers. No privacy or cookie policies are present, indicating potential GDPR compliance gaps. Contact information is provided clearly, but no phone numbers or incident response contacts are found. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be improved with updates and policy additions. The overall risk is low given the academic and non-commercial nature of the site, but improvements in privacy compliance and security best practices are recommended to enhance trust and regulatory adherence.

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

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 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

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

Keep watching icos-belgium.be

This scan found 24 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
95
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
61

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

ICOS Belgium operates within the energy and environmental research sector, providing critical infrastructure for carbon and greenhouse gas monitoring. Its market position is strong within the European research community, supported by partnerships with ICOS central facilities and the University of Antwerp. The business model is non-profit and research-focused, targeting scientists, educators, and policy makers. The website reflects a medium-sized organization with a clear focus on scientific data provision and outreach. Growth indicators include active event hosting and collaboration opportunities. The partnership ecosystem is robust, linking to multiple ICOS thematic centers and academic institutions, enhancing credibility and reach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is implemented, but no security headers such as Content Security Policy or HSTS are detected. The use of outdated JavaScript libraries like jQuery 1.11.0 introduces potential vulnerabilities. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, and no dedicated security contact channels are provided. The absence of privacy and cookie policies further weakens compliance posture. While no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data are visible, the site would benefit from modernization of its tech stack, implementation of security headers, and formalization of privacy and incident response documentation to align with GDPR and NIS2 requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Update all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to current secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, including a cookie consent mechanism to ensure GDPR compliance.
  3. Add standard security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Establish and publish an incident response policy with dedicated contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email addresses).
  5. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ICOS Belgium
Description
ICOS Belgium is part of the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a European Research Infrastructure providing long-term observations to understand the carbon cycle and greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. It supports climate prediction and mitigation activities.
Key services
Ecosystem monitoring stations, Ocean monitoring stations, Atmosphere monitoring stations, Data provision for climate research, Outreach and educational workshops
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.11.0, Modernizr 2.6.2, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by URL https://)
  • No visible exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

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

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 scientific research infrastructure portal focused on carbon observation in Belgium and Europe.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, indicating potential compliance gaps.
  3. Contact information is provided but no phone numbers found.
  4. Use of outdated JavaScript libraries may pose security risks.
  5. No visible security headers detected in provided data.
  6. Website uses Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking without visible cookie consent.
  7. Content is professional, relevant, and well-structured with clear navigation.
  8. No forms detected on the main page; contact likely via email link or contact page.
  9. Social media presence on Instagram and X (Twitter) with official links.
  10. No evidence of advertising or affiliate marketing.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional front-end stack with jQuery 1.11.0 and Modernizr 2.6.2, which are outdated and may pose security risks. Google Analytics and Tag Manager are used for user tracking without visible cookie consent, indicating a gap in privacy compliance. The site is hosted under BELNET, a reputable academic network provider, consistent with the research focus. Performance is moderate with basic mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is basic with meta tags but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. The site lacks a CMS indication and appears to be custom-built or static. Modernization opportunities include updating libraries, improving mobile responsiveness, and enhancing SEO and accessibility compliance.
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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