Skip to main content

Security report for johncabot.edu

John Cabot University · Education · Italy

Partial score · DNS & email only

54/100

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

John Cabot University is an established American liberal arts university located in Rome, Italy, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs along with study abroad opportunities. The website effectively targets prospective students, alumni, and academic professionals with comprehensive academic information, events, and community engagement content. The university maintains a consistent brand presence and trust indicators such as accreditation and testimonials. Technically, the site is built on ASP.NET with modern front-end libraries like jQuery and Bootstrap, hosted behind Cloudflare, and uses OmniUpdate CMS. However, performance metrics are missing, and the site lacks a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical security concern. Privacy compliance is well addressed with cookie consent mechanisms and a comprehensive privacy policy. The site integrates marketing and analytics tools such as Google Analytics and HubSpot forms, indicating a mature digital marketing approach. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and enhance trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
33/ 100 · High
Checks completed
6of 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

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

Keep watching johncabot.edu

This scan found 10 issues across 5 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

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
0
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
33
Average
54

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

John Cabot University operates in the higher education sector, focusing on international students seeking American-style liberal arts education in Rome. Its competitive advantage lies in its unique location and combination of American academic standards with Italian cultural heritage. The business model revolves around tuition-based education, study abroad programs, and community engagement. The university leverages partnerships with payment processors and learning platforms to support operations. The website's content and structure support recruitment and retention efforts, with clear navigation and multiple contact channels. Growth indicators include active event calendars, news updates, and social media engagement. The university's digital ecosystem is integrated with marketing automation and analytics tools, supporting data-driven decision-making.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. No modern TLS protocols or security headers like HSTS are implemented, further weakening transport security. While cookie consent and privacy policies are in place, there is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy. The use of Cloudflare provides some protection, but the lack of encryption is a critical vulnerability. Forms collect personal data with validation and consent, but without HTTPS, data confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Immediate remediation is required to install SSL/TLS certificates and enable secure protocols to protect user data and comply with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or higher) and disable insecure protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  5. Establish and publish an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy to enhance transparency and trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
John Cabot University
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a mature technology stack including ASP.NET, jQuery, Bootstrap, and FontAwesome, hosted behind Cloudflare with DNS managed by Cloudflare nameservers. The CMS appears to be OmniUpdate, indicated by specific headers and URLs. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and uses Google Fonts for typography. Analytics and marketing tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and HubSpot forms are integrated for user tracking and lead generation. However, performance data is missing, suggesting potential issues with load times or monitoring. Accessibility features are basic but present, and SEO optimization is good with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The absence of SSL/TLS is the most significant technical risk, impacting security and user trust.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with johncabot.edu. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review johncabot.edu.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.