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Security report for kaist.ac.kr

한국과학기술원 (KAIST) · Education · South Korea

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

KAIST is a prestigious national science and technology university in South Korea, established to foster scientific talent and conduct advanced research aligned with national policies. The website reflects its institutional stature, providing comprehensive academic, research, and campus life information targeted at students, researchers, and stakeholders. The domain is longstanding and registered transparently under the institution's name, reinforcing its legitimacy. Technically, the website employs common web technologies such as jQuery and Bootstrap, with moderate performance and good mobile responsiveness. However, it lacks modern security headers and DNSSEC, which could be improved to enhance security posture. Privacy and cookie policies are not explicitly found, indicating a gap in compliance with modern privacy standards. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS and does not expose sensitive data, but could benefit from publishing incident response contacts and vulnerability disclosure policies. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but should address privacy compliance and security best practices to strengthen its digital maturity. The risk assessment is low given the institutional nature and absence of suspicious elements, but strategic improvements in privacy and security policies are recommended to maintain 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

8 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 kaist.ac.kr

This scan found 25 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
67
Security headers
20
Email security
60
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
60

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

KAIST operates as a public national university focusing on education and research in science and technology. It holds a leading market position in South Korea's higher education sector. The business model centers on academic programs, research initiatives, and industry collaboration. The website supports multiple audiences including prospective and current students, faculty, alumni, and partners. The absence of commercial advertising and tracking indicates a non-commercial, service-oriented approach. The institution's ecosystem includes related domains for news, giving, and leadership, reflecting a broad partnership and communication network.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and no evident exposure of sensitive information. However, the lack of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, which limits transparency in security incident handling. The absence of privacy and cookie policies also indicates compliance gaps with GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an educational institution but requires enhancements to meet best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement DNSSEC to protect domain integrity and prevent DNS spoofing.
  2. Add essential security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish clear privacy and cookie policies to comply with GDPR and enhance user trust.
  4. Establish and publicize an incident response contact and vulnerability disclosure policy to improve security transparency.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and update third-party libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
한국과학기술원
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
한국과학기술원 (KAIST)
Description
과학 인재 양성과 국가 정책으로 추진하는 과학기술연구 수행을 위해 설립된 대한민국의 국립 특수 대학교. 대전광역시 유성구 대학로 291에 위치하고 있다.
Key services
Higher education, Scientific research, Industry collaboration, Student support services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.3.1, jQuery Migrate 1.4.1, jQuery UI, Bootstrap CSS, YouTube iframe API
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No DNSSEC
  • No exposed emails in HTML except official contact

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 a national university official site with comprehensive academic and institutional information.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on the main page or metadata.
  3. Contact information is clearly provided in WHOIS and meta tags but no dedicated contact page found in provided data.
  4. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy.
  5. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  6. Uses standard web technologies with moderate performance and good mobile optimization.
  7. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided content.
  8. No signs of adult or questionable content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional tech stack with jQuery and Bootstrap for UI components and responsiveness. It loads YouTube iframe API for embedded videos. The HTML structure is valid and includes meta tags for SEO and social media sharing (Open Graph). The site appears custom-built or uses a proprietary CMS, with no common CMS detected. Performance is moderate with deferred script loading improving page load. Accessibility features are basic, with skip navigation links present. SEO is basic with keywords and descriptions but could be improved with structured data and sitemap. Mobile optimization is good, supporting responsive layouts.
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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