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Security report for ithaka.org

ITHAKA · Education · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 1 other check.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

ITHAKA is a well-established nonprofit organization dedicated to improving access to knowledge and higher education globally. It operates prominent subsidiary services such as JSTOR, Portico, and Ithaka S+R, providing digital libraries, preservation services, and research initiatives. The organization targets students, researchers, educators, and academic institutions, focusing on affordability, access, and preservation of knowledge. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence with comprehensive content and clear navigation. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern frameworks like Bootstrap and uses popular libraries such as jQuery and Slick Slider. It employs Google Tag Manager for analytics and Adobe Typekit for fonts. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, security headers are not explicitly detected, and no vulnerability disclosure or incident response contacts are published. Privacy compliance is good, with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms in place. Business credibility is high, supported by trust signals such as registered trademarks, active news updates, and social media presence. Overall, the website presents a low-risk profile with a mature digital presence. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, and providing explicit incident response contacts to further strengthen trust and security posture.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of ithaka.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

  2. 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.

  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 ithaka.org

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.

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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
85
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
78

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

ITHAKA holds a strong market position as a nonprofit leader in digital education and knowledge access. Its business model revolves around providing digital platforms, preservation services, and research to academic communities worldwide. Revenue streams likely include institutional subscriptions, grants, and partnerships. The organization targets higher education institutions, libraries, researchers, and students, emphasizing access and affordability. Growth indicators include active initiatives, investments in emergent education technologies, and a robust partnership ecosystem with subsidiaries like JSTOR and Portico. The website's professional content and consistent branding reinforce its authoritative presence in the education sector.

Security posture

ITHAKA demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive information. The use of Google Tag Manager is managed appropriately with cookie consent mechanisms. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represents an area for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, and incident response contact information is not publicly available. These gaps could impact incident handling and transparency. Overall, the organization appears security-conscious but should enhance its security documentation and header implementation to align with best practices and compliance requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact information on the website for security issues.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and continue optimizing mobile responsiveness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ITHAKA
Description
We are a mission-based not-for-profit working to eliminate barriers to learning by making higher education and access to knowledge more affordable.
Key services
Digital libraries and learning platforms, Preservation services for libraries and publishers, Research and advising on higher education access and success, Collaborative strategies for higher education and the arts
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Bootstrap, jQuery, Slick Slider, Google Tag Manager, Yoast SEO, Adobe Typekit Fonts
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for analytics
  • Cookie consent mechanism present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and multimedia
  2. Strong branding and consistent messaging about nonprofit educational mission
  3. Multiple well-known subsidiary brands featured (JSTOR, Portico, Ithaka S+R)
  4. Good SEO and metadata implementation including Open Graph and JSON-LD
  5. No forms with email or phone fields detected on homepage; contact form exists on contact page
  6. No exposed emails or phone numbers found in HTML content
  7. Social media links to LinkedIn and Twitter present
  8. Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  9. No explicit security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  10. WHOIS data unavailable but domain expiry date is valid and recent
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern and widely supported technology stack centered on WordPress CMS with Bootstrap for responsive design. It uses jQuery and Slick Slider for interactive elements and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. Fonts are served via Adobe Typekit. The site is well-structured with valid meta tags and JSON-LD structured data for SEO. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in loading speed. Hosting details are not explicit, but the site uses HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate. No critical technical debt or deprecated libraries were detected, indicating good maintenance and modernization efforts.
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. 81/100 −1Low28 findingsView report
  2. 82/100Low27 findingsView report
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