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Security report for mpg.de

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft website represents a leading German non-profit research organization focused on fundamental scientific research across 84 institutes. The site provides comprehensive information about the organization, its research activities, career opportunities, and publications. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging a specialized CMS (JustRelate CX Cloud), JavaScript frameworks, and a cookie consent management platform (Usercentrics). Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and CSRF protections, though explicit security headers and incident response policies are not evident. Privacy compliance is partially demonstrated through cookie consent but lacks visible privacy policy documentation in the analyzed content. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-optimized for users and search engines.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of mpg.de. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

6 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

    • 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

  2. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

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

Keep watching mpg.de

This scan found 23 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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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
72
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
66

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention mpg.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
11,831
Employees
174
Customers
10,510
Third parties
1,147
Weak passwords
15%

Latest record dated 2026-06-12 · 650 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for mpg.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –login.vw.mpg.de2026-06-12
  • –owa.ie-freiburg.mpg.de2026-06-12
  • –keeper.mpdl.mpg.de2026-06-12
  • –owa.ie-freiburg.mpg.de2026-06-11
  • –keeper.mpdl.mpg.de2026-06-11

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft holds a dominant position in German scientific research, operating as a large non-profit entity with a broad international footprint. Its business model centers on advancing fundamental research and fostering scientific innovation. The organization targets researchers, academics, and the science-interested public. The website supports this with detailed content on research topics, awards, and career paths. Partnerships with institutions like Fraunhofer and international centers are indicated. The site’s content and structure reflect a mature digital presence aligned with its prestigious reputation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and CSRF tokens in forms. The use of a reputable cookie consent platform indicates attention to privacy regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers (e.g., CSP, X-Frame-Options) and lack of published security or incident response policies suggest areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The organization would benefit from publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy and enhancing HTTP security headers to strengthen defenses.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear privacy policy and terms of service pages accessible from the homepage.
  3. Provide incident response contact information and a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  4. Enhance contact information visibility, including official emails and phone numbers for public and security inquiries.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to ensure minimal privacy impact and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften
Description
Die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft ist Deutschlands führende außeruniversitäre Grundlagenforschung Forschungsorganisation - Forschung an 84 Instituten.
Key services
Scientific research, Research funding, Career opportunities in research, Publications and dissemination of scientific knowledge, International cooperation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, RequireJS, Usercentrics CMP, JustRelate CX Cloud CMS, Katex (math rendering), TinyMCE (rich text editor)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CSRF tokens in forms
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
statistik.mpg.de (likely internal analytics)
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Usercentrics
Marketing tools
Usercentrics CMP
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured
  2. Content is comprehensive and relevant to scientific research and education
  3. Cookie consent is implemented via Usercentrics CMP
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided HTML snippet
  5. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in the analyzed content
  6. Use of modern web technologies and CMS JustRelate CX Cloud
  7. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript-based tech stack with RequireJS, Usercentrics CMP for cookie management, and JustRelate CX Cloud CMS. It employs responsive design and accessibility best practices, with good SEO metadata and Open Graph tags. Hosting appears to be managed by GWDG, a reputable German academic network provider. Performance is moderate, with deferred loading of some CSS and JS assets. The site integrates multimedia content including podcasts and videos hosted on YouTube. Overall, the technical implementation supports a robust and user-friendly experience but could improve by adding more security headers and optimizing performance further.
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. 65/100 +5Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 60/100Medium22 findingsView report
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