Skip to main content

Security report for mpg.de

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

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften is Germany's leading non-university research organization, operating 84 institutes focused on fundamental scientific research. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for information about the organization, its research activities, innovation initiatives, career opportunities, and international collaborations. The site is professionally designed, mobile-optimized, and uses modern web technologies including a consent management platform to comply with privacy regulations. Hosting and DNS infrastructure align with academic and research networks, reinforcing legitimacy. However, explicit privacy policies, terms of service, and security incident response information are not clearly presented in the accessible content, representing areas for improvement.

Scanned

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

7 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.

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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
62
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
65

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 strong market position as a premier research institution in Germany and internationally. Its business model centers on non-profit scientific research and innovation transfer. The organization targets researchers, academics, students, and the broader scientific community. The website supports this by providing detailed information on research institutes, awards, publications, and career paths. Partnerships with entities like Fraunhofer and international offices indicate a broad collaboration ecosystem. The content quality and navigation support effective user engagement, although contact information is limited in the analyzed content.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and integrates a reputable consent management platform (Usercentrics) for cookie compliance. Forms include CSRF tokens, indicating attention to security in data submission. However, no explicit security headers were detected in the provided data, and no public security policy or incident response contacts are available. There is no evidence of vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data in the HTML content. The security posture is solid but could be enhanced by publishing security policies, adding security headers, and providing clear incident response channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a clear and accessible privacy policy page linked prominently on the website.
  2. Add terms of service and security policy pages to improve transparency and compliance.
  3. Implement and configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  4. Provide explicit contact channels for security incidents, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  5. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
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
Basic scientific research, Research funding and support, Innovation and technology transfer, Career opportunities in science, Publications and scientific communication
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
RequireJS, Usercentrics CMP, JustRelate CX Cloud CMS, Slick Slider, KaTeX, JavaScript ES Modules
Frameworks
JustRelate CX Cloud
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CSRF tokens in forms
  • Cookie consent management via Usercentrics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Usercentrics
Marketing tools
Usercentrics Consent Management Platform
Transparency
basic

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 in German language.
  2. Strong focus on scientific research and innovation.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and consent management.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in provided HTML snippet.
  5. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in the snippet.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  7. No social media links explicitly found in provided HTML snippet.
  8. WHOIS data shows academic/research oriented nameservers.
  9. Website content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including RequireJS for module loading, JustRelate CX Cloud as the CMS, and Usercentrics for consent management. It employs responsive design with CSS and JavaScript enhancements for accessibility and SEO. Hosting appears to be managed within academic/research infrastructure, likely ensuring reliability and performance. The site loads additional assets asynchronously and uses lazy loading for images, contributing to moderate to good performance. There is room for improvement in security header implementation and explicit metadata for security and compliance.
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. 66/100 +6Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 60/100Medium22 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with mpg.de. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review mpg.de.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.