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Security report for karolinska.se

Karolinska Institutet & Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset · Healthcare · Sweden

High risk. 20 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 2 other checks.

Security score

33/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Karolinska.se represents the digital presence of two leading Swedish healthcare and medical education institutions: Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset (University Hospital) and Karolinska Institutet (Medical University). The website serves as a bilingual landing page directing visitors to either institution's dedicated site, targeting patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, students, and partners. The business model is public healthcare and education, with a strong market position as a leading European hospital and world-renowned medical university. Technically, the site uses modern JavaScript and Azure Application Insights for monitoring, hosted likely on Microsoft Azure infrastructure. The design is professional and mobile-optimized, though accessibility and SEO features are basic. Security posture is moderate, with no visible security headers or explicit HTTPS confirmation in the provided data, and no privacy or cookie policies present. No contact or incident response information is provided, limiting transparency. Overall, the site is credible and functional but would benefit from enhanced security and compliance features.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

20 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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

  3. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: Telnet

      Port 23 (Telnet) is publicly accessible - Telnet - Unencrypted remote access

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to Telnet using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection
    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: SMB

      Port 445 (SMB) is publicly accessible - SMB - Windows file sharing, high risk

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to SMB using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

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

Keep watching karolinska.se

This scan found 33 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

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

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Full report

€39.90one-time

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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
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
0
Average
33

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 · found on this site
  • 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

Karolinska.se leverages its strong brand as a leading healthcare and medical education provider in Sweden and Europe. The dual focus on hospital services and university education allows it to serve diverse audiences including patients, researchers, and students. The website acts as a gateway to more detailed resources hosted on partner domains such as ki.se. The absence of direct contact information or detailed policies on this landing page suggests a centralized approach to information dissemination. The use of Azure Application Insights indicates investment in monitoring and performance tracking. The business ecosystem includes partnerships with Swedish healthcare and academic institutions, reinforcing its authoritative market position.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with the use of Azure Application Insights for telemetry, which aids in monitoring and incident detection. However, the lack of visible security headers, absence of privacy and cookie policies, and no incident response contacts reduce the overall security maturity. No forms or input fields were detected, minimizing attack surface, but also limiting user engagement features. The site does not show evidence of GDPR compliance mechanisms or vulnerability disclosure policies. Recommendations include implementing security headers, publishing privacy and cookie policies, providing incident response contacts, and ensuring HTTPS enforcement to improve trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear user consent mechanisms.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Add visible contact information for security incidents and data protection officer.
  4. Ensure HTTPS is enforced and clearly indicated to users.
  5. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to enhance transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Karolinska Institutet & Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset
Description
Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset är ett av Europas ledande sjukhus med ett uppdrag att bedriva och utveckla sjukvård, forskning och utbildning. Karolinska Institutet är ett av världens ledande medicinska universitet. Universitetets webbplats vänder sig till studenter, forskare, medarbetare, samarbetspartners och till dig som vill veta mer om medicinsk forskning och utbildning.
Key services
Healthcare services, Medical research, Medical education
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Azure Application Insights
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
50/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of Azure Application Insights for monitoring

Analytics and tracking

Services
Azure Application Insights
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Azure Application Insights
Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website content is fully accessible and not blocked by any WAF or security challenge.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided HTML content.
  3. No contact emails, phone numbers, or physical addresses explicitly present in the analyzed content.
  4. The website uses Azure Application Insights for telemetry and monitoring.
  5. The site targets both Swedish and English speaking audiences with language toggle functionality.
  6. External links primarily point to ki.se, the Karolinska Institutet official site.
  7. No forms or data collection fields detected in the provided HTML content.
  8. No social media links or security incident contact channels found.
  9. No structured data (JSON-LD) or Open Graph meta tags detected.
  10. The website appears to be a landing/split page directing users to either Karolinska University Hospital or Karolinska Institutet sites.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript-based front end with Azure Application Insights for monitoring, indicating a cloud-hosted infrastructure likely on Microsoft Azure. The site is bilingual with language toggle functionality, enhancing accessibility for Swedish and English speakers. Performance is moderate with deferred script loading. No CMS or frameworks are explicitly detected. SEO and accessibility features are basic but functional. The site acts primarily as a landing page directing users to more comprehensive partner sites. Technical risks include lack of security headers and missing privacy compliance features, which should be addressed to reduce potential vulnerabilities and improve 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

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