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Security report for ipy.org

Non-profit · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.ipy.org represents the International Polar Year initiative, a collaborative international scientific effort focused on polar region research. The site provides educational resources, news, event information, and project data related to polar science. The target audience includes educators, researchers, participants, and the general public interested in polar studies. The website uses Joomla CMS with K2 components and includes legacy technologies such as Flash and older JavaScript libraries, indicating a need for modernization. Analytics tools like Google Analytics and Piwik are employed, but privacy compliance is minimal, with no visible privacy or cookie policies. Security posture is weak due to lack of HTTPS enforcement, absence of security headers, and use of deprecated technologies. WHOIS data is unavailable, limiting domain trust verification. Overall, the site is functional and content-rich but requires significant improvements in security, privacy, and technical modernization to enhance trust and compliance.

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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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';…
  3. 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

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

Keep watching ipy.org

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.

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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
62
Security headers
70
Email security
60
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

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 ipy.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2
Employees
0
Customers
2
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
100%

1 subdomain 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 ipy.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

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

The IPY initiative operates as a non-profit scientific collaboration platform, focusing on polar research and education. It serves a niche market of scientific communities, educators, and policy makers interested in Arctic and Antarctic studies. The business model appears to be informational and collaborative rather than commercial. The site links to partner domains such as arcticportal.org, indicating a partnership ecosystem. The lack of clear business contact information and privacy policies suggests limited commercial operations. Growth indicators are not evident from the site content. The partnership with Arctic Portal and use of open-source CMS reflects a cost-effective operational approach.

Security posture

The website's security maturity is low. Key vulnerabilities include absence of HTTPS enforcement, outdated JavaScript libraries, and use of deprecated Flash content. No security headers are detected, and no incident response or security policies are published. Privacy compliance is minimal with no GDPR indicators or cookie consent mechanisms. The lack of WHOIS data transparency further reduces trust. These issues expose the site to risks such as data interception, cross-site scripting, and reputational damage. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not observable from the site.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTPS with HSTS and ensure all site resources load securely.
  2. Update or replace outdated JavaScript libraries and remove Flash content.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance.
  4. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  5. Improve WHOIS transparency or provide clear registrant contact information on the site.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
The International Polar Year (or IPY) is a collaborative, international effort researching the polar regions.
Key services
Research collaboration on polar regions, Information dissemination, Educational resources, Event organization
Content quality
good
Branding
moderate

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery 1.7.1, MooTools, SWFObject, Piwik Analytics
Frameworks
K2 (Joomla component)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
40/100

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (UA-990634-23 and UA-990634-27), Piwik
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik
Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
basic
User experience
basic
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
basic
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible with no WAF or blocking detected.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable or blocked, limiting domain trust analysis.
  3. Website uses outdated technologies including Flash and old JavaScript libraries.
  4. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the content.
  6. Site content is focused on polar research and education, safe for general audiences.
  7. Analytics usage includes Google Analytics and Piwik, but no clear privacy compliance.
  8. Site uses Joomla CMS with K2 component.
  9. No security headers or HTTPS enforcement detected in the HTML content.
  10. Navigation and content structure is clear but design is basic and dated.
Technical notes

Notes

The site is built on Joomla CMS with K2 components and uses JavaScript libraries including MooTools and jQuery 1.7.1, which are outdated. Flash content is embedded via SWFObject, which is deprecated and insecure. The site loads external scripts from Google CDN and Arctic Portal domains. Analytics are implemented using Google Analytics and Piwik. The site design is basic with moderate performance and limited mobile optimization. SEO and accessibility features are minimal. The technical debt is significant, and modernization is recommended 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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