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Security report for mass.gov

Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Government · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Mass.gov is the official website of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, serving as a comprehensive portal for government services, information, and resources. It targets residents, businesses, visitors, and government employees, providing key services such as unemployment benefits application, vehicle registration renewal, tax refund checking, and access to state organizations. The site is positioned as the authoritative source for Massachusetts state government information and services. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 11 CMS and integrates modern analytics and monitoring tools including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and New Relic Browser. It demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring a high-quality user experience. The site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration, though explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy are not visibly set. From a security perspective, the site follows good practices such as enforcing HTTPS and avoiding exposure of sensitive data. However, it lacks some security headers and a cookie consent mechanism, which are recommended for enhanced security and privacy compliance. The WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to .gov domain registry policies, but the website's branding and content strongly support its legitimacy. Overall, Mass.gov is a well-designed, secure, and authoritative government portal with minor areas for improvement in privacy compliance and security header implementation. It poses low risk and serves as a trusted resource for Massachusetts residents and stakeholders.

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

7 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 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

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

Keep watching mass.gov

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.

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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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
20
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

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

Mass.gov operates as a government service portal for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, providing essential public services and information. Its market position is that of the official state government website, which grants it high trust and authority. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery. The site supports a broad target audience including residents, businesses, and visitors. Key services include unemployment benefits, vehicle registration, tax information, and access to government departments. The website's partnership ecosystem includes official social media channels and search services. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and integration of modern web technologies. Strategic observations highlight strong branding consistency and comprehensive service coverage.

Security posture

The security posture of Mass.gov is solid, with HTTPS enforced site-wide and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of New Relic Browser monitoring indicates active performance and error tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy represents an area for improvement. The lack of a cookie consent mechanism may impact GDPR compliance. No vulnerabilities or malicious content were detected in the analyzed content. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly disclosed on the site. Overall, the site demonstrates good security hygiene but could enhance its defenses with additional headers and privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement explicit Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy headers to strengthen security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to improve privacy compliance and user transparency.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance trust and preparedness.
  4. Ensure WHOIS data is accessible or provide official domain registration information to improve transparency.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Description
Official website of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts providing government services, information, and resources to residents, businesses, and visitors.
Key services
Unemployment benefits application, Vehicle registration renewal, Tax refund checking, Court docket search, Housing assistance information, MassHealth updates, Access to state organizations and departments
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 11 CMS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Translate Widget, New Relic Browser monitoring
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security monitoring tools (New Relic)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, New Relic Browser
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Maze Universal Loader
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official state government website with comprehensive public services
  2. Strong branding and consistent user interface
  3. Good technical implementation with modern CMS and analytics
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  5. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to .gov domain registry policies
  6. No explicit cookie consent mechanism despite cookie policy presence
  7. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on homepage
  8. Social media presence is official and consistent
Technical notes

Notes

Mass.gov is built on Drupal 11 CMS, leveraging a modern technology stack including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and New Relic for monitoring. The site is well-optimized for performance and mobile responsiveness, with excellent accessibility features. Structured data using JSON-LD enhances SEO and content discoverability. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified, but the site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration. The technical implementation reflects a mature and well-maintained infrastructure suitable for a large government portal. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and privacy mechanisms to align with best practices.
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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