Skip to main content

Security report for invest-vaud.ch

Département de l'économie, de l'innovation, de l'emploi et du patrimoine (DEIEP) · Government · Switzerland

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.invest-vaud.ch serves as the official economic promotion and innovation portal for the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. It is managed by the governmental department DEIEP and aims to attract investors, startups, and businesses by showcasing the region's assets, key sectors, and support services. The site highlights the canton’s strengths in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and finance, positioning Vaud as a leading hub for innovation and economic prosperity in Europe. The content is professionally curated, targeting entrepreneurs and economic stakeholders with comprehensive information and success stories. Technically, the website is built on the DotNetNuke CMS platform, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, Bootstrap, and Select2 for enhanced user experience. It employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and integrates cookie consent management via tarteaucitron.js, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, though some accessibility improvements could be made. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses secure forms with validation and anti-forgery tokens. While no critical vulnerabilities were detected, the absence of certain security headers and a public security policy or vulnerability disclosure page suggests room for enhancement. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies, including GDPR considerations. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and technical maturity, suitable for its role as a government economic promotion platform. Strategic recommendations include implementing additional security headers, publishing a security policy, and enhancing accessibility features to further strengthen its security posture and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

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 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

  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 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: LinkedIn, YouTube, Cloudflare

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

  3. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching invest-vaud.ch

This scan found 21 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
55
Email security
65
DNS health
85
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
50
Average
56

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 invest-vaud.ch, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for invest-vaud.ch right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The canton of Vaud’s economic promotion website reflects a strong market position as a governmental entity focused on fostering innovation and investment. Its competitive advantages include a well-established network of leading companies, universities, and research centers, as well as a comprehensive suite of support services for businesses. The business model is centered on economic development and innovation facilitation rather than direct commercial revenue. The target customers are startups, scale-ups, investors, and companies seeking to establish or expand operations in Vaud. The presence of multiple partner organizations and success stories indicates a robust ecosystem and collaborative approach. Growth indicators include active promotion of key sectors such as digital technologies, life sciences, and energy. The site’s partnership ecosystem spans regional organizations and industry leaders, enhancing its strategic outreach and influence.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security posture with HTTPS enforced site-wide and secure form handling practices including client-side validation and anti-forgery tokens. The implementation of a cookie consent mechanism aligns with privacy best practices. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options represents a potential area for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were identified in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency in vulnerability management and incident handling. Overall, the site maintains a good security baseline appropriate for a government informational portal but could benefit from enhanced security controls and disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a formal security policy and provide dedicated incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly update and audit third-party libraries and scripts to ensure they are free from known vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Département de l'économie, de l'innovation, de l'emploi et du patrimoine (DEIEP)
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Département de l'économie, de l'innovation, de l'emploi et du patrimoine (DEIEP)
Description
The website promotes the canton of Vaud as a prime location for economic investment, innovation, and business development. It highlights assets, key sectors, services, and success stories related to the region's economy and innovation ecosystem.
Key services
Support for innovation projects, Networking activation, Land and premises finding, Financing assistance, Recruitment support, Business startup guidance, Information on tax advantages
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.2.1, jQuery UI 1.12.1, Bootstrap 4.0.0, DotNetNuke CMS, CKFinder 4, Select2 4.0.12, tarteaucitron.js (cookie consent)
Frameworks
DotNetNuke
Platforms
Microsoft ASP.NET
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
  • Secure form with validation and anti-forgery tokens

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Marketing tools
sitesearch360.com
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is comprehensive and targeted at investors and businesses.
  3. Strong emphasis on innovation and economic development in Vaud canton.
  4. Multiple external links to partner companies and organizations.
  5. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented and accessible.
  6. Contact form uses validation and anti-forgery tokens for security.
  7. No signs of malicious or suspicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the DotNetNuke CMS platform, utilizing a combination of jQuery, Bootstrap 4, Select2, and CKFinder for content management and user interface enhancements. The use of tarteaucitron.js indicates a mature approach to cookie consent and privacy compliance. The site loads external resources from trusted CDNs and integrates Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for traffic analysis. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, particularly in script loading and caching strategies. The site is mobile responsive with a clear navigation structure and SEO-friendly meta tags. Technical debt appears low, but modernization opportunities include upgrading to newer versions of JavaScript libraries and improving accessibility compliance. No critical technical risks were identified that would impact business operations.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with invest-vaud.ch. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review invest-vaud.ch.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.