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Security report for ipma.pt

Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera · Government · Portugal

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) is a Portuguese government entity specializing in meteorology, oceanography, climate monitoring, and seismic activity. The website serves as the national authoritative source for weather forecasts, marine conditions, seismic alerts, and climate data, targeting the general public, researchers, and governmental sectors. It provides comprehensive scientific and public service information, including interactive maps and detailed forecasts. The site is well-branded and consistent with its government affiliation, offering a professional and trustworthy user experience. Technically, the website is built on the OpenCms content management system and utilizes JavaScript libraries such as Leaflet for mapping and jQuery for interactivity. It integrates Google Analytics for user tracking but lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms. The site performs moderately well with basic mobile optimization and accessibility features. However, some technologies like jQuery are outdated, and security headers are not visibly implemented, which could be improved. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and does not expose sensitive data. There are no detected vulnerabilities or WAF challenges, indicating a stable security posture. However, the absence of privacy and cookie policies, as well as incident response information, suggests gaps in compliance and transparency. The WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy as a government entity, reinforcing trust. Overall, the IPMA website is a credible and authoritative source for meteorological and oceanographic information in Portugal, with room for improvement in privacy compliance, security best practices, and modernization of technical components.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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

9 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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';…

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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
60
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
55

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

IPMA holds a strong market position as Portugal's official meteorological and oceanographic institute, providing essential public services and scientific research. Its business model is government-funded, focusing on delivering accurate weather forecasts, seismic monitoring, and climate data to diverse audiences including the public, maritime, aeronautical, and research communities. The website reflects a mature digital presence with interactive tools and detailed data, supporting transparency and public safety. The lack of direct contact details and privacy policies may limit user engagement and trust in some areas. There is no evidence of commercial revenue streams or partnerships visible on the site, consistent with its government agency status. The organization benefits from a clear brand identity and consistent messaging aligned with its mission. Its use of standard web technologies and integration of analytics indicates a moderate level of digital maturity. Strategic opportunities include enhancing user trust through improved privacy disclosures and modernizing technical infrastructure to reduce security risks.

Security posture

The IPMA website demonstrates a baseline security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and no visible exposure of sensitive information. The absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, and HSTS reduces the overall security hardening. The use of an outdated jQuery version (1.11.3) could expose the site to known vulnerabilities if not properly mitigated. No signs of malware, phishing, or WAF blocking were detected, indicating a clean operational environment. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies and lack of GDPR indicators. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not present, which could delay mitigation of potential security incidents. The site uses Google Analytics for tracking without visible consent mechanisms, which may raise compliance concerns. Recommendations include implementing security headers, updating JavaScript libraries, publishing privacy and cookie policies, and establishing clear incident response contacts to enhance security and compliance posture.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Upgrade jQuery and other JavaScript libraries to current secure versions.
  3. Add security headers such as CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  4. Provide explicit incident response and vulnerability disclosure contact information.
  5. Enhance mobile optimization and accessibility to improve user experience and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera
Description
Portuguese government institute focused on meteorology, oceanography, climate, seismic activity, and related scientific research and public services.
Key services
Weather forecasts, Marine forecasts, Seismic monitoring, Climate monitoring, Public warnings and alerts, Scientific research, Training and recruitment
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery 1.11.3, Leaflet 0.7.7 and 1.7.1, Font Awesome 4.7, Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Frameworks
OpenCms (CMS)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No visible exposed sensitive data
  • Use of secure external libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Portuguese government meteorological and oceanographic institute website.
  2. Comprehensive weather, marine, seismic, and climate information provided.
  3. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on the homepage or main navigation.
  4. Contact available only via a contact form; no direct emails or phone numbers found in the main content.
  5. Use of older jQuery version (1.11.3) may pose some security risks.
  6. Google Analytics is used for tracking without visible cookie consent mechanism.
  7. No visible security headers detected in the HTML content.
  8. Website uses OpenCms CMS and Leaflet for interactive maps.
  9. No signs of WAF or content blocking; full content accessible.
  10. No adult or questionable content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on OpenCms, a Java-based CMS, and uses Leaflet for interactive mapping, along with Font Awesome for icons and jQuery 1.11.3 for DOM manipulation. External scripts include Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking. The site loads CSS and JS resources both locally and from CDNs such as unpkg.com and cdnjs.cloudflare.com. Performance is moderate with some reliance on older libraries that may affect speed and security. The site is partially mobile optimized but could benefit from responsive design improvements. SEO is basic with meta keywords and author tags present but no Open Graph or JSON-LD structured data detected. Accessibility features are minimal, with some ARIA or semantic HTML improvements possible. Overall, the technical infrastructure is functional but shows signs of aging and could be modernized to improve security, performance, and user 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

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