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Security report for msu.edu

Michigan State University · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Michigan State University is a large, well-established public educational institution providing a wide range of academic programs, research initiatives, and campus life services. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content targeting prospective and current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The university maintains a strong market position as a top 30 public university in the US with a recognized sustainability rating. Technically, the website leverages a modern technology stack including Sitecore CMS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and multiple social media integrations. The site is mobile optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though performance is moderate and could benefit from further optimization. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and use of reCAPTCHA Enterprise, but lacks explicit security headers and documented incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences. Privacy compliance is adequate with a comprehensive privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR-specific disclosures could be enhanced. The domain registration is consistent with the university's identity, reinforcing legitimacy and trust. Strategic recommendations include improving security header implementation, adding clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure information, and enhancing cookie consent transparency to strengthen privacy compliance and user trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of msu.edu. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

7 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching msu.edu

This scan found 25 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
64
Security headers
20
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

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

Michigan State University operates as a public educational institution with a broad portfolio of academic and research offerings. Its competitive advantages include a large student body, extensive program variety, and strong research funding. The university targets diverse customer segments including future students, current students, alumni, and faculty. Revenue streams likely include tuition, government funding, research grants, and donations. The partnership ecosystem includes various academic and research organizations, as well as community and industry collaborators. The website's digital presence supports recruitment, engagement, and information dissemination, reflecting a strategic approach to market positioning and growth.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and integration of Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise to protect forms. Multiple tracking and marketing scripts are used, which necessitates ongoing monitoring for vulnerabilities. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which is a gap in transparency and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and documenting security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Add a publicly accessible vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Deploy a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and tracking pixels to mitigate potential security risks.
  5. Enhance documentation and communication of data retention policies and privacy practices to users.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Michigan State University
Description
Michigan State University is a large public university focused on education, research, and community engagement. It offers over 400 programs of study across 17 colleges with extensive undergraduate research opportunities. The university serves a diverse audience including future students, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Key services
Academic programs, Research initiatives, Campus life services, Admissions and recruitment, Alumni relations
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Microsoft Clarity, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Twitter Universal Website Tag, YouTube iframe API, jQuery, Sitecore CMS
Frameworks
Sitecore Experience Platform
Platforms
YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with validation scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Twitter Ads, Snapchat Ads, The Trade Desk
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Snapchat Pixel, Microsoft Clarity
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained university site with comprehensive academic and research information.
  2. Strong presence of official social media and external academic resources.
  3. Use of multiple analytics and marketing tools indicates mature digital marketing strategy.
  4. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content.
  5. No explicit privacy cookie consent banner detected, which could be improved for GDPR compliance.
  6. Security headers not explicitly detected in HTML content; recommend audit.
  7. No visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Sitecore CMS platform, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries and multiple third-party analytics and marketing tools including Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and Twitter Ads. The site uses responsive design techniques and accessibility features such as skip navigation links and ARIA labels. Performance is moderate, with some room for optimization in loading times and script management. The technical infrastructure is robust and supports a large-scale educational institution's needs, but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and privacy compliance mechanisms.
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. 65/100Medium33 findingsView report
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