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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

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Institut français is a French public institution responsible for promoting French culture internationally under the aegis of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. The website presents a comprehensive cultural mission supporting French language promotion, artistic mobility, and cultural diversity worldwide. The institution targets cultural professionals, artists, and the French cultural network abroad. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10, uses Matomo for analytics, and integrates Google reCAPTCHA v3 for form security. The site is well-designed, mobile-optimized, and includes cookie consent management compliant with GDPR. Security posture is good with HTTPS and standard security practices, though some security headers could be explicitly confirmed. WHOIS data is missing or inaccessible, which is unusual for a .com domain but the website content and branding strongly indicate legitimacy as an official government entity. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of institutfrancais.com. View the latest report

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, Twitter, 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 22 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
52
Security headers
70
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
68

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 operates as a government cultural diplomacy entity with a large global footprint, including 98 French Institutes and 830 Alliances françaises worldwide. Its business model is non-commercial, focusing on cultural promotion and cooperation. The website supports this mission with detailed program offerings, news, and resources for cultural professionals. The institution leverages partnerships with French ministries and cultural networks. The site’s content and structure reflect a mature organization with a clear target audience and strategic cultural objectives.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect forms from abuse. Cookie consent is managed via Orejime, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. While explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options are not confirmed in the HTML, the overall security posture is solid. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of a public security policy or incident response contact is noted but typical for government cultural sites. Regular security audits and header enhancements are recommended to maintain and improve security.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against clickjacking and MIME sniffing.
  2. Improve website accessibility compliance to at least a good level to better serve users with disabilities.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents or data protection officer to enhance transparency and compliance.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Investigate and resolve the missing WHOIS data issue to improve domain registration transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Institut français
Description
L’Institut français accompagne la culture française à l’international. Il soutient à travers le monde la promotion de la langue française, la circulation des œuvres et des idées, la mobilité des artistes. Il œuvre à la diversité culturelle et contribue activement à l’accueil des scènes étrangères en France.
Key services
Promotion of French language and culture internationally, Support for cultural projects and artists, Cultural cooperation and mobility, Providing tools and offers for French cultural network abroad
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Matomo analytics, Google reCAPTCHA v3, Orejime cookie consent
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 for forms
  • Cookie consent management with Orejime

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo analytics, Google reCAPTCHA
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 in French.
  2. No WAF or blocking detected.
  3. WHOIS data missing or inaccessible, unusual for .com domain.
  4. Strong branding and official social media presence.
  5. Good privacy and cookie compliance with user consent mechanisms.
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage.
  7. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and analytics (Matomo).
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal 10 CMS, a modern and secure platform for content management. It integrates Matomo analytics for privacy-respecting user tracking and Google reCAPTCHA v3 for bot protection. The site loads multiple fonts and images optimized for desktop and mobile. Cookie consent is managed with Orejime, a modern consent management tool. Performance is moderate with some room for optimization. The site is mobile responsive and SEO optimized with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. No major technical debts or risks were identified, but accessibility improvements are advisable.
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. 67/100Medium31 findingsView report
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