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Security report for irs.gov

Internal Revenue Service · Government · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website serves as the official digital presence of the U.S. federal tax authority, providing comprehensive tax-related information and services to individuals, businesses, tax professionals, and international filers. The site offers key services such as tax filing guidance, refund status tracking, payment processing, and identity protection. It is positioned as the primary federal tax collection agency with a strong market presence as a government entity. The website is well-branded, professionally designed, and consistent with government standards, targeting a broad audience of U.S. taxpayers. Technically, the IRS website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and Akamai's performance monitoring tools. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring a fast and user-friendly experience. Hosting appears to be via a reputable provider with robust infrastructure. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs security best practices, and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, explicit security headers and incident response contact information are not visibly published, and no cookie consent mechanism was detected, which could be areas for improvement. The domain is a .gov domain, which inherently carries strong legitimacy and trust. Overall, the IRS website exhibits a high level of professionalism, security, and compliance suitable for a critical government service. Strategic recommendations include enhancing visible security policies, publishing vulnerability disclosure information, and implementing cookie consent to improve privacy compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of irs.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

3 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 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 irs.gov

This scan found 18 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
95
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
76

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

The IRS operates as a government agency under the U.S. Department of the Treasury, holding an essential role in tax collection and enforcement. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and compliance. The website supports a wide range of taxpayer segments including individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and international filers. The IRS maintains partnerships with related government entities such as the Treasury and oversight bodies. The site’s extensive content and tools indicate a mature digital presence with ongoing updates and user engagement. The IRS’s market position is dominant and authoritative in the tax domain, with no direct commercial competitors. Growth indicators are tied to government mandates and taxpayer needs rather than market competition.

Security posture

The IRS website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, secure form handling, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information. The use of a .gov domain and hosting via reputed providers adds to trustworthiness. However, the absence of explicit security headers in the visible HTML and lack of published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies represent minor gaps. No signs of malware, phishing, or suspicious activity were detected. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Overall, the site is secure and trustworthy but could enhance transparency around security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit Content-Security-Policy and other security headers to strengthen browser security.
  2. Add a visible security policy page and incident response contact information to improve transparency.
  3. Implement a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance visibility of official contact information for security and privacy inquiries.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Internal Revenue Service
Description
Pay your taxes. Get your refund status. Find IRS forms and answers to tax questions. We help you understand and meet your federal tax responsibilities.
Key services
Tax filing information, Refund status tracking, Forms and instructions, Payment processing, Identity protection PIN issuance, Taxpayer assistance
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, jQuery, AddToAny sharing, BOOMR (Akamai Real User Monitoring)
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with autocomplete off
  • Use of official .gov domain

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Digital Analytics Program
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Digital Analytics Program (dap.digitalgov.gov)
Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive tax-related content and services
  3. Multi-language support with hreflang tags
  4. No signs of phishing or malware
  5. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on homepage
  6. No cookie consent banner detected
  7. Strong branding and consistent design
  8. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  9. No WHOIS data available publicly, typical for government domains
Technical notes

Notes

The IRS website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring maintainability and security. It integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics and uses Akamai's Boomerang for performance monitoring, indicating a focus on user experience and site reliability. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is fast with efficient resource loading. The technical stack is modern and appropriate for a large government site. Opportunities exist to improve security header implementation and cookie consent mechanisms. No technical debt or outdated libraries were detected in the provided content.
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. 76/100Low26 findingsView report
  2. 76/100Low26 findingsView report
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