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Security report for innovation.ca

Canada Foundation for Innovation · Government · Canada

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is a Canadian government-related non-profit organization focused on investing in research infrastructure across Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions. The website positions CFI as a national leader in funding and supporting research infrastructure that drives innovation, economic growth, and knowledge mobilization. The site targets researchers, academic institutions, and policy makers with comprehensive resources, funding opportunities, and impact stories. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies and third-party analytics tools like Google Tag Manager and Hotjar. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and professionally designed, reflecting a mature digital presence. Security posture is generally strong with HTTPS enforced, but lacks some security headers and a cookie consent mechanism, which are recommended for enhanced compliance and protection. WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to privacy protection, but the domain is a Canadian ccTLD consistent with the organization's identity. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and serves its audience well with clear navigation and relevant content.

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

3 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.

    • 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. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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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
75
Security headers
70
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
77

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 innovation.ca, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
54
Employees
0
Customers
54
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
0%

3 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for innovation.ca.

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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

CFI operates as a government-funded non-profit entity, providing critical funding for research infrastructure in Canada. Its market position is strong as a key enabler of innovation and research capacity building nationwide. The business model centers on grant funding and resource provision to academic and research institutions. The organization maintains a strong partnership ecosystem, including the Research Facilities Navigator platform. Growth indicators include recent news updates and strategic investments in national priorities. The website's content and social media presence reinforce its credibility and outreach efforts. No direct revenue streams are visible on the site, consistent with its non-profit status.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive data. Use of asynchronous loading for analytics scripts reduces performance impact. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security is a gap. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are provided, which could improve transparency and security culture. The lack of a cookie consent mechanism despite tracking scripts may pose compliance risks under GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced with additional headers, disclosures, and consent management.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by providing incident response contact information and data retention policies.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Description
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) invests in research infrastructure at Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions. The research infrastructure we fund mobilizes knowledge, spurs innovation and commercialization, and empowers the talented minds of a new generation.
Key services
Funding research infrastructure projects, Managing awards and grants, Providing resources and support for research institutions, Maintaining a Research Facilities Navigator database
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, FontAwesome, AOS (Animate On Scroll), Bootstrap Select, Swiper.js
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Hotjar scripts asynchronously

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable or privacy protected, common for Canadian domains.
  3. Website uses modern Drupal CMS and includes multiple funding and research resources.
  4. Social media presence is strong and consistent with official branding.
  5. No contact emails explicitly found in HTML; contact likely via contact page form.
  6. No phone numbers explicitly found in HTML content.
  7. No cookie consent banner detected despite tracking scripts present.
  8. No explicit security headers detected in HTML source.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  10. Content is professional, government-related, and safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, indicating a modern and supported platform. It uses popular libraries and frameworks such as FontAwesome for icons, AOS for animations, Bootstrap Select for UI components, and Swiper.js for carousels. Google Tag Manager and Hotjar are used for analytics and user behavior tracking. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive images and accessible navigation. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous script loading improving load times. No hosting provider information is directly discernible. The site structure and meta tags support good SEO. Technical risks include missing security headers and lack of cookie consent, which should be addressed to improve compliance and security posture.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 77/100Low27 findingsView report
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