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Security report for kreis-altenkirchen.de

Kreisverwaltung Altenkirchen · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website kreis-altenkirchen.de serves as the official digital portal for the Landkreis Altenkirchen district administration in Germany. It provides a range of citizen services, political and administrative information, public announcements, and cultural resources targeted primarily at local residents and stakeholders. The site is structured with clear navigation and includes essential contact information, making it a reliable source for district-related information. From a technical perspective, the website employs a traditional web stack with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, including libraries such as jQuery 1.7.1, jQuery UI, Mustache.js, and Highslide JS. While functional, the use of outdated JavaScript libraries and a basic design indicate moderate digital maturity. Accessibility and mobile optimization are present but could be improved for a better user experience. Security posture is moderate; the site uses cookie consent mechanisms and Matomo analytics with privacy considerations. However, the absence of modern security headers and the use of outdated libraries present potential vulnerabilities. No explicit security or incident response policies are publicly available, which could be enhanced to improve trust and compliance. Overall, the website is trustworthy and serves its government function well but would benefit from technical modernization and enhanced security practices to align with current standards and regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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. 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

    • 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 kreis-altenkirchen.de

This scan found 28 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

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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
42
Security headers
65
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
56

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

Kreis Altenkirchen operates as a local government entity providing essential public services to its district population. Its market position is that of a regional authority with a focus on citizen engagement, administrative transparency, and community support. The business model is non-commercial, funded by public resources, and focused on service delivery rather than revenue generation. The website supports this by offering online services, public announcements, and educational content. Partnerships with regional organizations and service providers are evident through linked domains. Growth indicators are not applicable in the traditional sense but maintaining digital presence and service accessibility is critical for public trust and operational efficiency.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate. The website implements basic privacy compliance with cookie consent and uses Matomo analytics configured for privacy. However, the use of an outdated jQuery version (1.7.1) introduces potential security risks, and no HTTP security headers were detected in the provided data, which are important for mitigating common web attacks. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which limits transparency and preparedness. The absence of HTTPS configuration details is a concern and should be verified. Overall, the site meets minimal security expectations for a government portal but requires upgrades to libraries, security headers, and public security policies to enhance resilience and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Upgrade all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement and enforce HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Ensure HTTPS is properly configured and enforced site-wide with strong SSL/TLS settings.
  4. Publish explicit security policies and incident response procedures to improve transparency and preparedness.
  5. Enhance mobile optimization and accessibility to improve user experience for all visitors.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Kreisverwaltung Altenkirchen
Description
Official website of the district administration of Altenkirchen providing citizen services, political and administrative information, local news, and public announcements.
Key services
Citizen services, Online services, Public announcements, Political and administrative information, Cultural and educational resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery 1.7.1, jQuery UI, Mustache.js, Nivo Slider, Highslide JS, FontAwesome 5
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
ReadSpeaker (text-to-speech accessibility tool)
Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official government portal for Landkreis Altenkirchen in Germany.
  2. Content is primarily in German and targeted at local residents.
  3. Cookie consent banner is implemented with clear user options.
  4. No explicit privacy or security policy pages beyond basic privacy statement found.
  5. No terms of service page detected.
  6. Use of outdated JavaScript libraries may pose security risks.
  7. No visible social media links on homepage.
  8. Contact information is clearly provided with phone, email, address, and contact form.
  9. No evidence of advertising or commercial tracking beyond Matomo analytics and ReadSpeaker accessibility tool.
  10. Website design is functional but basic, with moderate performance and accessibility.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional web technology stack with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript libraries including jQuery 1.7.1, jQuery UI, Mustache.js, and Highslide JS. The presence of Nivo Slider and FontAwesome 5 indicates some modern UI elements, but overall the stack is dated. No modern frameworks or CMS platforms were detected, suggesting a custom or legacy CMS. Performance is moderate with basic mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is basic with minimal meta keywords and description tags. The site includes a cookie consent banner and uses Matomo analytics for tracking. There is room for modernization to improve performance, security, and user experience.
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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