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Security report for medlineplus.gov

MedlinePlus · Healthcare · United States

Low risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security and GDPR outside view.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

MedlinePlus is a reputable online health information resource operated by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It provides authoritative, easy-to-understand health content targeting patients, families, and the general public. The website holds a strong market position as a trusted government source for health topics, drugs, genetics, medical tests, and wellness information. Its business model is government-funded public service with no commercial intent, emphasizing education and health literacy. Technically, the website employs a modern technology stack including jQuery, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and the US Web Design System (USWDS) framework. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, hosted likely on government infrastructure. Performance is moderate with good user experience and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and uses domain transfer protection. However, it lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is partial, with a comprehensive privacy policy but no visible cookie consent mechanism. The site links to a vulnerability disclosure policy hosted by HHS, indicating some security governance. Overall, MedlinePlus demonstrates a high level of trustworthiness, professionalism, and content quality with minor areas for improvement in security headers and privacy compliance. The domain WHOIS data aligns with the website's government affiliation and long operational history, reinforcing legitimacy.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of medlineplus.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching medlineplus.gov

This scan found 16 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
100
Security headers
80
Email security
60
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
77

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

MedlinePlus operates as a government entity providing free, authoritative health information to the public. Its competitive advantage lies in its affiliation with NIH and NLM, ensuring credibility and access to extensive medical knowledge. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on public health education. Revenue streams are government-funded. The target audience includes patients, caregivers, and health professionals seeking reliable health information. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and integration with EHR systems via MedlinePlus Connect. The partnership ecosystem includes NIH, NLM, HHS, and other government health agencies. Strategic observations highlight strong brand trust, comprehensive content offerings, and a focus on accessibility and multilingual support.

Security posture

MedlinePlus exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, domain transfer protection, and a vulnerability disclosure policy link. The absence of DNSSEC and security headers represents moderate gaps. No exposed credentials or vulnerabilities were found. Privacy compliance is partial due to missing cookie consent mechanisms. Incident response contact details are not explicitly published on the site. Overall, the site maintains a secure environment appropriate for a government health information portal but could enhance defenses by adopting additional security headers and privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and display a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR.
  3. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  4. Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security practices and incident response contacts.
  5. Create and host a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
National Library of Medicine
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
MedlinePlus
Description
MedlinePlus is an online health information resource for patients and their families and friends. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Key services
Health Topics, Drugs & Supplements information, Genetics information, Medical Tests explanations, Medical Encyclopedia, Healthy Recipes, MedlinePlus Connect for EHRs
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, jQuery 3.6.0, Crazy Egg, US Web Design System (USWDS), Qualtrics Site Intercept
Frameworks
US Web Design System (USWDS)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status serverTransferProhibited
  • Official .gov domain
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Crazy Egg
Marketing tools
Qualtrics Site Intercept
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official US government health information website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive health content targeting general public and patients
  3. Strong branding and consistent design aligned with NIH and NLM
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  5. Good use of modern web technologies and analytics
  6. Lacks explicit cookie consent mechanism
  7. No visible security headers in HTML response
  8. WHOIS privacy protection used but justified for government domain
  9. Vulnerability disclosure policy linked via HHS site
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of modern JavaScript libraries (jQuery 3.6.0), analytics tools (Google Analytics, Crazy Egg), and the US Web Design System framework for consistent government styling. Hosting appears to be managed internally by NIH/NLM, ensuring control and compliance with government standards. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of analytics scripts. The site is mobile responsive and accessible, with semantic HTML and ARIA attributes. Technical debt is minimal, but opportunities exist to improve security headers and implement DNSSEC. The site does not appear to use a commercial CMS, indicating a custom or government-developed platform.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 73/100Medium23 findingsView report
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