Skip to main content

Security report for lowyinstitute.org

Lowy Institute · Government · Australia

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Lowy Institute website represents a well-established Australian international policy think tank providing comprehensive research, analysis, and media content. The site is professionally designed, mobile-optimized, and rich in content including publications, events, podcasts, and interactive tools. Technically, it leverages Drupal 10 CMS and integrates multiple analytics and tracking services such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and PostHog, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and anonymized IP tracking, though explicit security headers and policies are not evident. The absence of WHOIS data limits domain trust verification but the website's professionalism and content quality support its legitimacy. Privacy and cookie policies are not clearly found, suggesting room for compliance improvement.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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

5 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 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 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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain dev.lowyinstitute.org points to unregistered service dc-169781-189601018.ap-southeast-2.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching lowyinstitute.org

This scan found 23 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

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
62
Security headers
60
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70

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

The Lowy Institute operates as a non-profit think tank focused on government and international affairs sectors. It targets policymakers, academics, media, and the public with a business model centered on research dissemination, events, and media production. The organization maintains a strong market position in Australia with a consistent brand and high-quality content. Its partnership ecosystem includes related domains for interactive data tools and polls. The website's use of modern technologies and analytics tools reflects a commitment to digital maturity and audience engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with enforced HTTPS and use of anonymized IP tracking in analytics. However, it lacks visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and does not publish a security policy or incident response information. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found. The site uses third-party scripts which should be regularly audited to mitigate risks. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish clear and accessible privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement and verify security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Add explicit contact information including security incident response contacts to improve transparency.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize security and privacy risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Lowy Institute
Description
The Lowy Institute is an independent international policy think tank based in Australia. It provides research, analysis, and commentary on global affairs, diplomacy, security, and development issues, targeting policymakers, academics, and the public.
Key services
Policy research and analysis, Publications (policy briefs, analysis, special features), Events and conferences, Podcasts and videos, Interactive data tools and maps
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, PostHog, Slick Carousel, YouTube embeds
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • Use of security-focused scripts with crossorigin attributes

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, PostHog
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, PostHog
Marketing tools
Hotjar, PostHog
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided HTML snapshot.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the visible content or forms.
  4. Multiple embedded analytics and tracking scripts are used, indicating moderate user tracking.
  5. Website uses modern CMS (Drupal 10) and includes accessibility and SEO best practices.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies visible.
  8. WHOIS data is unavailable or malformed, limiting domain registration trust analysis.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, utilizing modern JavaScript libraries and analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and PostHog. It embeds multimedia content via YouTube and uses responsive design techniques for mobile optimization. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in loading speed and caching strategies. Accessibility features are present, enhancing usability for diverse users. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found. Overall, the technical infrastructure is robust and supports the organization's digital goals effectively.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with lowyinstitute.org. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review lowyinstitute.org.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.