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Security report for indicabooks.org

Indica Books · Education · India

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in Email security, Network security and 3 other checks.

Security score

41/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Indica Books is a niche educational and cultural publishing platform focused on promoting Indic civilisational knowledge through books, workshops, and events. The platform supports authors and researchers by providing publishing assistance, book loans, and community engagement. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern libraries and SEO tools, offering a good user experience and mobile optimization. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS but lacks advanced security headers and cookie consent mechanisms. The WHOIS data aligns well with the website's claims, indicating legitimacy and consistent registration details. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professionally maintained but could improve privacy compliance and security hardening.

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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  3. 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 indicabooks.org

This scan found 30 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

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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
53
Average
41

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 · found on this site
  • 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

The platform targets authors, scholars, and readers interested in Indic knowledge systems, operating as a small non-profit entity under Indica Academy. It leverages partnerships with related domains for events, courses, and media, creating an ecosystem around Indic cultural promotion. The business model focuses on community-driven publishing, workshops, and events rather than commercial sales. The presence of review clubs and research fellowships indicates active engagement with its audience. The company maintains a consistent brand and content strategy, positioning itself as a credible thought leader in its niche.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses nonce tokens for AJAX forms, reducing risk of CSRF attacks. However, it lacks important security headers like Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security, which could mitigate XSS and downgrade attacks. No incident response or security policy is published, and no abuse or security contact emails are found. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a compliance gap given the use of Google Analytics. No vulnerable libraries or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML. Overall, the security posture is moderate but can be improved with standard best practices and compliance measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a security policy and provide incident response contact information.
  4. Regularly audit and update WordPress plugins and themes to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and provide more comprehensive contact information including phone and physical address.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Indica Books
Description
Indica Books is a platform dedicated to authors and aspirants who celebrate civilisational identity, continuity, and legacy through books, writing workshops, retreats, and publishing support. They facilitate writing journeys, provide loans of books, organize events, and promote authors through various channels.
Key services
Book publishing and promotion, Writing workshops and retreats, Book loans and research support, Events and author conversations, Review clubs and contests
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Bootstrap, Owl Carousel, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, Yoast SEO
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of nonce in AJAX forms

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 WordPress-based platform focused on Indic books and cultural knowledge.
  2. Content is rich with multiple sections including announcements, books, events, conversations, and videos.
  3. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  4. No cookie consent mechanism detected despite use of tracking scripts.
  5. Security headers are missing which could improve security posture.
  6. Contact information is limited to email only; no phone or physical address found.
  7. Privacy policy is present but basic and located on a related domain (indica.events).
  8. Multiple related domains and partner sites are linked, indicating a broader ecosystem.
  9. Use of modern web technologies and SEO plugins like Yoast.
  10. No visible signs of WAF or content blocking.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses WordPress CMS with Bootstrap framework and jQuery libraries, ensuring responsive design and interactive features like carousels. SEO is enhanced using Yoast SEO plugin with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Google Fonts and Google Analytics are integrated for typography and traffic analysis. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts. The site is mobile optimized and has clear navigation. However, there is some technical debt in missing security headers and lack of cookie consent. Hosting provider details are not explicit but the domain uses HTTPS with valid certificates. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but can benefit from security and privacy enhancements.
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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