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Security report for mnhn.fr

Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle · Government · France

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is a prominent French national institution dedicated to natural history research, education, and public exhibitions. It operates multiple sites across Paris and regions, serving a broad audience including families, scientists, educators, and professionals. The website reflects a well-structured, content-rich platform with excellent design and navigation, supporting its mission to disseminate knowledge and engage the public. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web technologies and uses caching and analytics tools such as Varnish, Matomo, and ContentSquare. Mobile optimization and SEO are well addressed, though performance is moderate. However, the critical security weakness is the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, severely impacting secure communications and user trust. Security headers and policies are implemented, but the lack of HTTPS and modern TLS support is a major vulnerability. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, with clear contact and legal information. Social media presence is official and consistent, enhancing credibility. Overall, the site is professionally managed with strong business credibility but requires urgent remediation of SSL/TLS issues to improve security posture and user trust. Strategic recommendations include installing valid certificates, enabling modern TLS, and enhancing security policies.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

8 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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

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

Keep watching mnhn.fr

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
0
Security headers
55
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
48

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

The museum holds a leading position in the French cultural and scientific landscape, offering extensive collections, research, and public engagement. Its business model is public institution-based, focusing on education, conservation, and scientific advancement. The target audience is diverse, including the general public, families, groups, scientists, and educators. The museum leverages partnerships with related sites and maintains a strong digital presence. Growth indicators include active event programming and digital content dissemination. The partnership ecosystem includes ticketing and donation platforms, enhancing service delivery.

Security posture

The current security maturity is moderate to low due to critical SSL/TLS deficiencies. While security headers and CSP are in place, the lack of valid HTTPS and modern TLS protocols exposes users to risks such as data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are publicly available. Privacy compliance is strong, but incident readiness and secure communication channels need improvement. The security culture appears aware but requires technical upgrades to meet best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the site.
  2. Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 protocols and disable legacy SSL/TLS versions.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  5. Publish a security.txt file with incident response contacts and vulnerability disclosure guidelines.
  6. Regularly audit and update security headers and Content Security Policy to mitigate risks.
  7. Enhance accessibility compliance beyond basic levels to improve user experience.
  8. Consider implementing a cookie consent mechanism to align with evolving privacy regulations.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern CMS (Drupal 10) with a robust caching layer (Varnish) and nginx web server. Analytics are handled via Matomo and ContentSquare, indicating a focus on user behavior analysis and optimization. The site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly with proper meta tags and structured navigation. However, the SSL/TLS configuration is critically flawed, with no valid certificate and no enabled TLS protocols, which is a significant technical risk. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in load times and resource optimization. The technology stack is current but requires security upgrades to reduce technical debt and operational risk.
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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