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Security report for institutfrancais.com

Institut français · Government · France

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Institut français is a key governmental cultural operator under the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. It implements France's external cultural policy by supporting and animating the French cultural cooperation network abroad, assisting creators and cultural industries internationally, and promoting the French language and plurilingualism. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence with rich content, clear navigation, and strong branding consistent with its governmental affiliation. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10, uses Matomo for analytics with privacy-respecting settings, and implements a cookie consent mechanism. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers are missing. WHOIS data is unavailable, which is unusual but likely due to query or server issues rather than malicious intent. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-maintained, and compliant with privacy regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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. 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching institutfrancais.com

This scan found 23 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
52
Security headers
70
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
67

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

Institut français holds a strong market position as the official French governmental cultural operator, serving a large international network of cultural institutions and professionals. Its business model is non-profit and government-funded, focusing on cultural diplomacy, project funding, and international cooperation. The website targets cultural professionals, institutions, and the general public interested in French culture. The organization leverages partnerships and a broad network to deliver its services. The digital presence supports its mission with programs, events, and news updates. Growth indicators include active program calls and international cultural events. The social media ecosystem is well integrated, enhancing outreach and engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, privacy-conscious analytics (Matomo with DoNotTrack), and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and security policy information are not published, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. Overall, the site aligns well with GDPR and privacy best practices but could strengthen its security framework documentation and technical headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Conduct a formal accessibility audit and address identified issues to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
  4. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Enhance WHOIS data availability or clarify domain registration details to improve trust and legitimacy perception.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Institut français
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Institut français
Description
Opérateur pivot du ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères et du ministère de la Culture dans la mise en œuvre de la politique culturelle extérieure de la France. Soutient et anime le réseau culturel français à l'étranger, accompagne les créateurs et industries culturelles françaises à l'international, renforce le dialogue entre cultures et promeut la langue française.
Key services
Support and animation of French cultural cooperation network abroad, Project funding and mobility programs, Organization of cultural events and debates, Promotion of French language and plurilingualism
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Matomo Analytics, Orejime cookie consent
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Matomo with DoNotTrack enabled

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics, Orejime Cookie Consent
Transparency
good

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 navigation.
  2. Strong cultural and governmental branding and messaging.
  3. Good privacy and cookie consent implementation.
  4. No security headers detected in HTML but HTTPS is enforced.
  5. No contact phone numbers explicitly found; only email and contact forms.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious given the official nature of the site.
  7. Social media presence on major platforms with official accounts.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely used CMS, indicating a solid technical foundation. It uses Matomo for privacy-focused analytics and Orejime for cookie consent management, reflecting attention to user privacy and compliance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive images and accessible navigation features, though accessibility compliance is marked as 'non conforme' and under audit. Performance appears moderate with deferred and async loading of scripts. The absence of explicit hosting provider information limits full infrastructure assessment. Overall, the technical implementation is modern and well-structured, supporting a professional and user-friendly experience.
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. 68/100Medium30 findingsView report
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