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Security report for kau.se

Karlstads universitet · Education · Sweden

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Karlstads universitet is a well-established Swedish university providing higher education, research, and collaboration services primarily in the education sector. The website targets students, staff, alumni, and the press, offering comprehensive information about programs, research, and university news. The institution maintains a strong market position as a regional university with a focus on quality education and societal collaboration. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS, uses Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics, and is well-optimized for mobile and accessibility. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent implemented, though explicit security headers and incident response information are absent. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with GDPR requirements.

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

8 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

    • 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

  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. 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 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';…

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

Keep watching kau.se

This scan found 24 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
0
Security headers
50
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
48

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

Karlstads universitet operates as a public educational institution with a clear focus on delivering academic programs and research. Its business model revolves around public funding and educational services. The university maintains a strong digital presence with multilingual support and active social media channels. Partnerships include links to national admission services (antagning.se). The website content and structure reflect a mature organization with consistent branding and trust signals such as official contact details and privacy policies. Growth indicators include active news and event calendars and research highlights.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and privacy-respecting analytics configuration. Cookie consent mechanisms comply with GDPR opt-in requirements. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and lack of published security or incident response policies represent areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure policies are not publicly available, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and security culture.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Maintain and regularly update cookie and privacy policies to reflect evolving regulations and best practices.
  5. Enhance accessibility and SEO further by continuous auditing and improvements.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Karlstads universitet
Description
Karlstads universitet is a Swedish university offering education, research, and collaboration services primarily in the education sector. It provides programs, courses, and research opportunities and serves students, staff, alumni, and press.
Key services
Higher education programs and courses, Research activities, Student support and career guidance, Collaboration with society and industry
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Matomo Analytics, Drupal CMS, JavaScript, CSS, SVG icons
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (canonical link uses https)
  • Cookie consent with opt-in mechanism
  • Matomo configured with disableCookies and DoNotTrack enabled

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
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 and professionally designed
  2. Strong compliance with GDPR and cookie consent regulations
  3. Clear contact information with phone and email provided
  4. No visible security policy or incident response information
  5. No terms of service page found
  6. Use of Matomo analytics with privacy-respecting settings
  7. Social media presence on major platforms
  8. Content is in Swedish with English language option available
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS, leveraging modern web technologies including JavaScript, CSS, and SVG for icons. It uses Matomo analytics configured to respect user privacy by disabling cookies and honoring Do Not Track signals. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. The technical infrastructure appears stable and professional, with no signs of technical debt or deprecated technologies. Hosting provider details were not explicitly found in the content.
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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