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Security report for issn.org

ISSN International Centre · Government · France

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 3 other checks.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The ISSN International Centre website serves as the official portal for the International Standard Serial Number system, coordinating a global network of national centres responsible for assigning ISSNs to serial publications. The organization operates as a non-profit entity with a focus on standardization and registration services for serials in both print and electronic formats. The website targets publishers, libraries, and multinational publishing entities, offering subscription-based access to the ISSN Portal and customized data processing services. The site is multilingual, professionally designed, and provides clear navigation and relevant content for its audience. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages a variety of plugins and libraries including Gravity Forms for contact forms, Google reCAPTCHA for spam protection, and Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site is secured with HTTPS and employs anti-spam measures on forms, but lacks some advanced security headers and explicit cookie consent mechanisms. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. From a security perspective, the site demonstrates good practices such as HTTPS enforcement and captcha-protected forms, but could improve by implementing security headers, publishing a security policy, and providing incident response contacts. The absence of WHOIS data limits domain trust analysis, but the professional presentation and organizational legitimacy mitigate concerns. No vulnerabilities or suspicious content were detected. Overall, the website is a credible and professional platform for the ISSN International Centre, with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security transparency. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, adding cookie consent, publishing security policies, and improving accessibility to strengthen 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

10 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
    • 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching issn.org

This scan found 28 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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
45

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 ISSN International Centre holds a unique market position as the global authority for serial publication identification, supported by a network of national centres. Its non-profit business model relies on subscription services and customized data processing offerings. The organization targets a specialized audience including publishers, libraries, and multinational entities, with a focus on standardization and international cooperation. The website reflects a mature digital presence with multilingual support and integration of modern web technologies. Partnerships are evident through links to the ISSN Portal and social media channels. Growth indicators include recent news updates and expansion of national centres. The business operates primarily in the government and non-profit sectors, with a medium-sized organizational footprint based in France.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect contact forms from spam and abuse. The implementation of honeypot fields and AJAX form submission further enhance security. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents a gap that could expose the site to certain web-based attacks. No evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries was found. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness communication. Compliance with GDPR is partially indicated through privacy policy presence but lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced security controls and clearer compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Add a visible cookie consent banner and detailed cookie policy to improve GDPR compliance and user transparency.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and provide clear incident response contact information to enhance trust and preparedness.
  4. Conduct an accessibility audit and improve features to meet recognized standards for users with disabilities.
  5. Consider creating a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting and improve security culture.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ISSN International Centre
Description
The ISSN International Centre coordinates the ISSN Network which assigns International Standard Serial Numbers to serial publications and continuing resources in print and electronic media worldwide.
Key services
ISSN assignment, ISSN Portal subscription, Customised ISSN data processing (ISSN Premium), Online services like ROAD, TAS, Keepers Registry, ISSN-L table
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Gravity Forms, Google reCAPTCHA, Google Tag Manager, Flickity carousel, WPML (multilingual plugin), Events Manager plugin, Mailjet for WordPress, Easy Fancybox
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA on contact form
  • Use of nonce and AJAX in forms
  • Captcha and honeypot anti-spam measures

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Mailjet
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is multilingual with language switcher supporting 7 languages.
  2. Uses modern web technologies and plugins for user interaction and content management.
  3. Includes a secure login portal for National Centres.
  4. Has a newsletter subscription with validation and privacy acceptance.
  5. No explicit phone numbers or physical addresses found in the HTML content.
  6. Contact is primarily via form with captcha protection.
  7. Social media presence on Facebook and Twitter is linked.
  8. No visible privacy cookie banner or explicit cookie policy page found.
  9. No visible terms of service or security policy pages.
  10. WHOIS data is unavailable due to malformed query response.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Gravity Forms, Google reCAPTCHA, and Google Tag Manager. It uses plugins for multilingual support (WPML), event management, and email marketing (Mailjet). The site features a Flickity carousel for dynamic content display and Easy Fancybox for image handling. Performance is moderate with good mobile responsiveness. The site uses AJAX for form submissions and includes anti-spam measures. However, there is no explicit hosting provider information. SEO optimization is basic with meta tags present but could be enhanced. Accessibility features are present but limited. The technical infrastructure is stable but could be modernized with improved security headers and enhanced privacy controls.
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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