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Security report for medlineplus.gov

MedlinePlus · Healthcare · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and DNS health.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

MedlinePlus is a reputable government-operated health information portal managed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It provides comprehensive, easy-to-understand health information targeting patients, families, and the general public. The website offers a wide range of services including health topics, drug information, genetics, medical tests, and a medical encyclopedia, positioning itself as an authoritative source in the healthcare information sector. The site is well-branded, consistent, and trusted, leveraging its official .gov domain and affiliation with NIH/NLM. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies such as jQuery, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Google Tag Manager, and the US Web Design System (USWDS) to ensure a responsive, accessible, and SEO-optimized user experience. Hosting appears to be managed internally by NIH/NLM, contributing to fast performance and high availability. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, adhering to government web standards. From a security perspective, MedlinePlus enforces HTTPS, uses secure domain registration practices, and employs secure forms. However, it lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers in the HTML content. There is no visible cookie consent mechanism, which may impact privacy compliance. The site links to a vulnerability disclosure policy hosted by HHS but does not provide a dedicated security policy or security.txt file. Overall, the security posture is strong but could be improved with additional headers and privacy features. Overall, MedlinePlus is a high-quality, trustworthy government health information website with excellent content and technical implementation. Minor improvements in privacy compliance and security policy transparency are recommended to enhance user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

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. 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

  2. DNS health

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

    • High

      No Name Servers Found

      Unable to find name servers for domain

      What to do: Configure proper name servers for the domain

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

Keep watching medlineplus.gov

This scan found 17 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
90
Security headers
80
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
73

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 service providing trusted health information to the public, leveraging its affiliation with NIH and NLM to maintain authoritative content. Its market position is strong as a primary source for health education and information in the United States. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on public health education and outreach. Key services include health topics, drug and supplement information, genetics, medical tests, and integration with electronic health records via MedlinePlus Connect. The target audience includes patients, families, healthcare providers, and researchers. The website demonstrates strong partnership ecosystems with NIH, NLM, HHS, and related government entities. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and integration with modern web analytics and user feedback tools. The site maintains a professional and consistent brand image aligned with government standards.

Security posture

MedlinePlus exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, secure domain registration status (serverTransferProhibited), and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of secure forms and absence of vulnerable libraries further strengthen its security. However, the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent areas for improvement. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism and dedicated security policy page may pose compliance risks, especially under privacy regulations like GDPR. The presence of a vulnerability disclosure policy linked via HHS is a positive indicator of incident response readiness. Overall, the site is secure but should enhance transparency and privacy controls to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  4. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and incident response procedures.
  5. Consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve security transparency.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
MedlinePlus
Description
Find information on health conditions, wellness issues, and more in easy-to-read language on MedlinePlus, the up-to-date, trusted health information site from the NIH and the National Library of Medicine.
Key services
Health Topics, Drugs & Supplements, Genetics, Medical Tests, Medical Encyclopedia, Healthy Recipes, MedlinePlus Connect for EHRs
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.6.0, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Google Tag Manager, US Web Design System (USWDS)
Frameworks
USWDS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ServerTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, DigitalGov Universal Federated Analytics
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.
  2. Uses HTTPS and modern web technologies.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No explicit privacy cookie consent mechanism detected.
  5. Comprehensive health information targeting general public.
  6. Strong branding and trust signals from NIH and NLM.
  7. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on homepage but contact forms and support links available.
  8. No security.txt file detected.
  9. Vulnerability disclosure policy linked via HHS site.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and robust technology stack including jQuery 3.6.0, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Google Tag Manager, and the US Web Design System (USWDS) framework, ensuring responsive design, accessibility, and SEO optimization. Hosting appears to be managed by NIH/NLM, contributing to fast load times and high availability. The site uses valid HTML and CSS with no detected broken elements. The search form uses GET method with hidden fields for project and source parameters, indicating structured search functionality. Analytics and tracking scripts are loaded asynchronously to optimize performance. There is no evidence of a commercial CMS; likely a custom or government CMS is used. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with opportunities to enhance security headers and privacy features.
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. 77/100Low23 findingsView report
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