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Security report for mba.com

mba.com · Education · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

mba.com is the official platform operated by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) that provides comprehensive resources for prospective MBA and business master's candidates. The website offers exam registration, preparation materials, business school program exploration, and event information, positioning itself as a leading resource in graduate business education. The platform is well-branded, professionally designed, and targets early to experienced professionals and undergraduates interested in business education. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Angular and Sitecore CMS, integrates Google Analytics and advertising services, and maintains good performance and mobile optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers could be enhanced. Privacy compliance is evident with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR considerations. The WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to privacy or registry restrictions, but the domain's legitimacy is supported by strong branding and consistent business information. Overall, mba.com represents a mature, trustworthy, and well-maintained educational platform with moderate tracking and advertising practices.

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

6 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 mba.com

This scan found 21 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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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
82
Security headers
20
Email security
80
DNS health
85
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

mba.com operates in the education sector, focusing on graduate business education. It serves as a marketplace and information hub connecting candidates with business schools and exam preparation resources. The business model includes exam registration fees, official prep product sales, and partnerships with educational service providers like Pearson. The platform supports global audiences with localized contact points and language options. Its market position is strong as the official GMAC site, providing exclusive access to GMAT and related exams. The partnership ecosystem includes Pearson and Advancery, enhancing service offerings. Growth indicators include event calendars, coaching services, and program matching tools. The company maintains a professional online presence with consistent branding and comprehensive content.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with HTTPS enforced site-wide, use of security headers such as Content-Type and X-UA-Compatible, and no exposed sensitive data in the HTML content. The site uses secure login mechanisms and session management. However, explicit Content Security Policy headers and security.txt files are not detected, representing areas for improvement. No incident response or security policy pages are publicly available, which could enhance transparency and preparedness. The use of third-party scripts and advertising networks is standard but requires ongoing monitoring to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from enhanced header policies and published security governance documents.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce a comprehensive Content Security Policy (CSP) header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve incident response readiness.
  3. Add dedicated security policy and incident response pages to increase transparency and user trust.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and advertising tags to reduce supply chain vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance HTTP security headers by adding HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options for improved protection.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
mba.com
Description
Connect to business schools, information, and tools to help you achieve your career goals.
Key services
GMAT Exam registration and information, Executive Assessment and NMAT exam information, Business school program exploration and matching, Exam preparation resources and official prep products, Event calendars and GMAC tours, Business education planning and coaching
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
AngularJS, Bootstrap Icons, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads / DoubleClick, AppDynamics (performance monitoring), Sitecore CMS
Frameworks
Angular
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Content Security Policy (implied by modern headers though not explicitly shown)
  • Secure cookies and session management (implied by login mechanisms)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, AppDynamics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google AdSense, Google DoubleClick
Marketing tools
HubSpot (email signup script)
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 with rich content and navigation.
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  3. Uses modern web technologies and analytics.
  4. Strong branding and official contact information present.
  5. No security policy or incident response pages explicitly found.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, but domain is well-known and trusted.
  7. Advertising and tracking practices are transparent and standard.
  8. No adult or questionable content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

mba.com is built on a modern technology stack including Angular for frontend interactivity and Sitecore CMS for content management. The site leverages Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking and performance monitoring via AppDynamics. It uses Bootstrap icons and Google Fonts for UI consistency. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and preloading of fonts for performance. Advertising is managed through Google AdSense and DoubleClick with lazy loading enabled. The site demonstrates good SEO practices with canonical tags, meta descriptions, and structured data in JSON-LD format. Performance is moderate with some room for optimization in ad loading and script execution. Accessibility features are present but could be further enhanced with ARIA roles and keyboard navigation improvements. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and scalable web presence.
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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