Skip to main content

Security report for joinhandshake.com

Handshake · Education · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Handshake is a leading online platform that connects employers of all sizes with the largest network of responsive, active, and diverse college students and recent alumni in the United States. The platform facilitates seamless, quick, and scalable hiring processes, offering advanced tools for talent sourcing, employer branding, event management, and ATS integrations. Handshake holds a strong market position, being utilized by 100% of Fortune 100 companies and maintaining official partnerships with over 1,500 colleges and universities. Technically, the website is built on modern frameworks such as Next.js and React, supported by a robust tech stack including Segment Analytics, Marketo, Microsoft Clarity, Bizible, and Drift for marketing and analytics. The site demonstrates excellent performance, mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, reflecting a mature and well-maintained digital infrastructure. From a security perspective, Handshake employs HTTPS with strong SSL configurations and implements essential security headers. While no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected, the site lacks explicit security policies and incident response information, which are recommended for enhanced transparency and trust. Overall, Handshake presents a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations, including GDPR. The extensive use of analytics and marketing tools indicates a sophisticated approach to user engagement and data collection, balanced with visible consent mechanisms. Strategic recommendations include publishing detailed security and incident response policies and establishing a vulnerability disclosure program to further strengthen security posture.

Scanned

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. 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

  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.

    • 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 joinhandshake.com

This scan found 17 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. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

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
69
Security headers
60
Email security
100
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
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

Handshake operates in the education sector, focusing on early talent recruitment by connecting employers with college students and recent graduates. Its business model revolves around providing a platform that streamlines the hiring process through advanced filtering, candidate engagement, and integration with existing ATS systems. The company benefits from strong market positioning, evidenced by its adoption by all Fortune 100 companies and extensive partnerships with educational institutions. Handshake's competitive advantages include a large, diverse talent pool, proprietary data for targeted recruitment, and comprehensive event management capabilities. The platform's growth is supported by a broad partnership ecosystem and a focus on mobile-first, Gen Z-centric engagement strategies.

Security posture

Handshake demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no visible exposure of sensitive information. The use of reputable third-party services for analytics and marketing is balanced with privacy compliance mechanisms such as cookie consent banners. However, the absence of publicly available security policies, incident response plans, and vulnerability disclosure channels represents a gap in transparency and readiness. The platform appears to follow best practices in web security but would benefit from enhanced communication of its security framework and direct security contact information to improve stakeholder confidence and incident management capabilities.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan on the website.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide clear and direct security contact information for reporting incidents.
  4. Enhance transparency around data retention and privacy practices.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Handshake
Description
Handshake is where employers of all sizes can hire from the largest network of responsive, active, and diverse talent in the US—seamlessly, quickly, and at scale.
Key services
Talent sourcing, Employer branding, ATS integrations, Event management, Candidate engagement
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, Segment Analytics, Marketo, Microsoft Clarity, Bizible, Drift
Frameworks
Next.js, React
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure cookies (implied by presence of OneTrust and GTM)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Segment, Microsoft Clarity, Bizible
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Segment, Marketo, Microsoft Clarity, Bizible, Drift
Marketing tools
Marketo, Segment, Bizible, Drift
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 professional design.
  2. Strong presence of marketing and analytics tools indicating mature digital marketing.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the page; contact likely via forms or app.
  4. Social media presence is strong with official accounts on major platforms.
  5. No explicit security or incident response policies found on the main page.
  6. Privacy and cookie policies are present and implemented with consent mechanisms.
  7. No suspicious or malicious domains detected in external links.
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern, performant tech stack centered on Next.js and React, ensuring fast load times and excellent mobile responsiveness. Integration with Sanity.io as a CMS facilitates dynamic content management. The use of multiple analytics and marketing tools indicates a sophisticated data collection and user engagement strategy. The site exhibits good accessibility features and SEO optimization, contributing to a positive user experience and search engine visibility. Technical risks are minimal, with no detected outdated or vulnerable libraries in the provided content. Opportunities exist to further enhance security transparency and streamline contact mechanisms.
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 joinhandshake.com. 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 joinhandshake.com.

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.