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Security report for merckhelps.com

Merck & Co., Inc. · Healthcare · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

Merck & Co., Inc. operates the merckhelps.com website to provide patient assistance programs for medicines and adult vaccines, primarily targeting patients and healthcare professionals in the United States. The site offers resources, enrollment forms, and program information to support eligible patients who lack insurance or cannot afford their medications. The business is positioned as a large, reputable pharmaceutical company with a strong commitment to patient support and assistance. Technically, the website is built on an ASP.NET Web Forms platform, utilizing modern front-end libraries such as Bootstrap and jQuery, along with marketing and tracking tools like Google Tag Manager and Bing UET. The site is mobile optimized and includes accessibility features, though these could be enhanced further. Hosting and domain registration are managed by reputable providers, with domain age consistent with the company's history. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs domain status locks, and integrates cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR. However, there is room for improvement by enabling DNSSEC, adding advanced security headers, and publishing a formal security policy or incident response contacts. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website demonstrates a solid security posture, good privacy compliance, and professional business credibility. The risk level is low, but strategic enhancements in security transparency and technical security controls are recommended to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

3 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 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

  2. 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
    • High

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 0 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

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

Keep watching merckhelps.com

This scan found 18 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

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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
57
Security headers
80
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
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

Merck & Co., Inc. is a leading pharmaceutical company with a well-established market presence. The merckhelps.com site supports its patient assistance programs, which are free of charge to eligible patients. The business model focuses on providing access to medicines and vaccines for uninsured or underinsured populations, enhancing corporate social responsibility and patient outreach. The company leverages partnerships with organizations like the Medicine Assistance Tool and maintains strong branding consistency. The target customer segments include patients in need and healthcare professionals in the US. The site reflects enterprise-level operations with a focus on compliance, patient support, and digital engagement through surveys and educational content.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain status protections in place. Cookie consent is managed via OneTrust, indicating GDPR awareness. Tracking scripts are used responsibly with user consent. However, the absence of DNSSEC and advanced security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No public security policy or vulnerability disclosure program is present, which could enhance incident response readiness and transparency. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the HTML content. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from formalized policies and additional technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement additional HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and vulnerability disclosure page to enhance transparency and incident response.
  4. Add public incident response contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email addresses).
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards and improve user experience for disabled users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Merck & Co., Inc.
Description
Merck provides medicines and adult vaccines free of charge to eligible patients who lack prescription drug or health insurance coverage and cannot afford their Merck medicines and vaccines. The site supports patient assistance programs and provides resources for patients and healthcare professionals in the United States.
Key services
Patient Assistance Programs, Vaccine Patient Assistance Programs, Enrollment form guidance and resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap, jQuery, Typeahead.js, Google Tag Manager, Bing UET (Universal Event Tracking), OneTrust Cookie Consent, GeoTargetly
Frameworks
ASP.NET Web Forms
Platforms
Windows Server (implied by ASP.NET)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security status domain locks

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, Bing UET
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Bing Ads
Tracking pixels
Bing UET, IpMeta
Marketing tools
OneTrust Cookie Consent
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented and relevant to patient assistance.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms implemented.
  4. Use of multiple tracking and marketing tools with transparency.
  5. No security policy or incident response contact publicly available.
  6. Domain registration and hosting consistent with a reputable enterprise.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on ASP.NET Web Forms, using Bootstrap and jQuery for responsive design and UI components. It integrates third-party marketing and analytics tools including Google Tag Manager, Bing UET, and IpMeta. Cookie consent is managed by OneTrust, and geotargeting is implemented via GeoTargetly. The site is hosted with DNS managed by NS1 and MSD DNS servers, with domain registration through MarkMonitor Inc. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site is mobile optimized and SEO friendly with proper meta tags and canonical URLs. Technical risks are minimal but could be reduced by modernizing security headers and enabling DNSSEC.
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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