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Security report for jzar.org

European Association of Zoos and Aquaria · Other · Netherlands

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research (JZAR) is an open access academic journal affiliated with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, focusing on publishing peer-reviewed research related to zoos and aquaria. The journal operates on an open access model without publication fees, targeting researchers, academics, and professionals in the zoological and aquarium fields. The website is professionally designed and uses the Open Journal Systems platform, supported by modern web technologies such as jQuery and Bootstrap, hosted by Greenhost in the Netherlands. From a technical perspective, the site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. However, there is room for improvement in security practices, notably the absence of DNSSEC and security headers. The site enforces HTTPS and has domain transfer protections, which are positive indicators. Privacy compliance is lacking due to missing privacy and cookie policies, which should be addressed to meet GDPR and other regulations. Overall, the security posture is moderate with no critical vulnerabilities detected, but enhancements in security headers and explicit policies would strengthen trust. The domain WHOIS data aligns well with the business, showing a consistent and legitimate registration. The site maintains a minimal user tracking footprint and does not employ advertising or tracking scripts, supporting user privacy. Strategically, the journal should prioritize publishing privacy and cookie policies, enable DNSSEC, and implement security headers to improve compliance and security posture. These steps will enhance trust and align with best practices for academic publishing platforms.

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

9 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 jzar.org

This scan found 22 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

€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

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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
20
Email security
80
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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

JZAR occupies a niche academic publishing market serving the zoological and aquarium research community. Its affiliation with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria provides credibility and a stable partnership ecosystem. The open access business model supports wide dissemination of research without financial barriers for authors or readers. The journal's impact metrics, though modest, indicate recognized academic presence. The website supports manuscript submissions and editorial workflows, targeting researchers and professionals globally. Social media channels extend outreach and engagement. Growth opportunities include expanding digital presence and enhancing compliance to attract more authors and readers.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and has domain transfer protections, which are foundational security measures. However, the lack of DNSSEC and absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represent gaps that could expose the site to certain attacks. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, limiting transparency. No contact emails for security or abuse reporting were found. The site does not appear to use vulnerable libraries and avoids excessive tracking, which reduces attack surface. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but can be improved by adopting recommended headers, enabling DNSSEC, and publishing security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement key security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to harden the website against common web attacks.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to comply with GDPR and enhance user trust.
  4. Establish and publish a security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are in use.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
European Association of Zoos and Aquaria
Description
An open access academic journal publishing research related to zoos and aquaria, including original research articles and evidence-based practice studies.
Key services
Publishing peer-reviewed research articles, Providing open access to scientific content, Supporting academic submissions and editorial processes
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, jQuery UI, Popper.js, Bootstrap
Frameworks
Open Journal Systems 3.3.0.17
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an academic journal platform with clear focus and professional presentation.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  4. Uses standard open source technologies and Open Journal Systems CMS.
  5. No suspicious or malicious indicators detected.
  6. Social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.
  7. No advertising or tracking scripts detected, indicating privacy-conscious approach.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Open Journal Systems 3.3.0.17, a widely used open-source academic publishing platform. It uses standard web technologies including jQuery, jQuery UI, Popper.js, and Bootstrap for UI components and responsiveness. Hosting is provided by Greenhost, a reputable Dutch hosting provider. The site loads with moderate performance and is mobile optimized with good accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. There is no evidence of heavy technical debt or deprecated technologies. Opportunities exist to modernize security configurations and enhance compliance documentation.
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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