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Security report for mfah.org

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) operates as a prominent non-profit cultural institution providing extensive art exhibitions, educational programs, film screenings, and community engagement activities. The website reflects a well-established entity with a strong regional presence, targeting a broad audience including art enthusiasts, families, educators, and students. The business model relies on memberships, donations, ticket sales, and grants, positioning MFAH as a leading museum in Houston with a comprehensive offering of services and events. Technically, the website employs modern technologies such as Blazor Server, Bootstrap 4, and integrates multiple third-party libraries and services including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Microsoft Application Insights. The infrastructure suggests hosting on Microsoft Azure or similar cloud platforms, ensuring good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. The site demonstrates strong digital maturity with fast loading times, responsive design, and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection, and leverages Application Insights for monitoring. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, best practices appear to be followed with no exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries detected. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. However, the site could improve by publishing a dedicated security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information. Overall, the risk assessment is low with a high trustworthiness rating. The domain WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to privacy protection, which is justified for this type of non-profit organization. The website is professional, secure, and compliant, making it a reliable digital presence for MFAH.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

5 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 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

  3. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching mfah.org

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

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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
65
Security headers
35
Email security
65
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
68

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

MFAH holds a strong market position as a leading art museum in Houston, serving a diverse audience through exhibitions, educational programs, and cultural events. Its competitive advantage lies in its extensive collections, community engagement, and multi-channel offerings including film and dining. Revenue streams include memberships, ticket sales, donations, and grants. The museum maintains partnerships with media outlets and cultural organizations, enhancing its visibility and influence. Growth indicators include active event calendars, news coverage, and digital engagement. The website supports these operations with integrated marketing and analytics tools, facilitating audience targeting and fundraising efforts.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement, use of bot mitigation via Google reCAPTCHA, and monitoring through Microsoft Application Insights. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms indicate compliance with GDPR and related regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers and incident response information suggests room for improvement. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file limits transparency. Overall, the security culture appears proactive but could benefit from enhanced documentation and communication of security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a formal security policy and provide clear incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency regarding data protection officer contact and GDPR compliance details.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Description
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is a non-profit cultural institution offering art exhibitions, educational programs, film screenings, and community engagement. It serves the Houston community and visitors with a broad range of art collections and events.
Key services
Art exhibitions, Film screenings, Educational programs, Membership and donations, Museum shop and dining
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Blazor Server, Bootstrap 4, FontAwesome, PhotoSwipe, Google Fonts, intl-tel-input, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Google reCAPTCHA
Frameworks
Blazor
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Application Insights for monitoring

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Application Insights, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Simpli.fi, AlpixTrack
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
Facebook Pixel
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 multimedia.
  2. Strong branding and consistent user interface.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks.
  4. Comprehensive navigation and clear calls to action.
  5. Presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  6. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious activity.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable but no negative indicators found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring Blazor Server for dynamic content, Bootstrap 4 for responsive design, and FontAwesome for icons. It leverages cloud hosting likely on Microsoft Azure, supported by Application Insights for telemetry and performance monitoring. The site integrates multiple third-party services for analytics, marketing, and user interaction, including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Google reCAPTCHA. Performance is optimized with preconnect and preload directives, lazy loading of images, and CDN usage. Accessibility and SEO are well addressed with semantic HTML, ARIA labels, and meta tags. Technical risks are minimal but include dependency on third-party scripts which require ongoing security management.
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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