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Security report for msuspartans.com

Michigan State University Athletics · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Michigan State University Athletics operates the official online presence for the university's sports teams, providing comprehensive information including schedules, rosters, news, ticketing, and fan engagement resources. The website serves a large audience of students, alumni, and sports fans, positioning itself as the authoritative source for Michigan State Spartans athletics. Technically, the site leverages modern web technologies such as Vue.js and is hosted on Amazon Cloudfront CDN, ensuring fast performance and mobile optimization. The integration of a consent management platform and adherence to privacy policies demonstrates a mature approach to privacy compliance. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly visible. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained, with strategic partnerships for ticketing and broadcasting enhancing its service offerings.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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';…

  3. 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 msuspartans.com

This scan found 24 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
72
Security headers
25
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
64

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 website reflects Michigan State University's athletics department's market position as a leading collegiate sports entity. Its business model focuses on content delivery, fan engagement, and ticket sales through partnerships with established platforms like eVenue and SeatGeek. The target customer segments include university students, alumni, sports enthusiasts, and local community members. The presence of multiple social media channels for individual sports teams indicates a broad and active engagement strategy. The site’s partnerships with broadcasting networks and ticketing services suggest diversified revenue streams and a robust ecosystem supporting the athletics program. Growth indicators include regular content updates, gameday promotions, and digital ticketing innovations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a high level of security maturity with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of a consent management platform aligns with privacy regulations such as GDPR. However, the absence of a dedicated security policy page, incident response contact information, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates areas for improvement in transparency and readiness. No vulnerabilities or outdated libraries were detected in the provided content. The security culture appears proactive but could benefit from enhanced communication channels for security incidents and disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and user responsibilities.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information to facilitate reporting of security issues.
  3. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  4. Enhance visibility of contact information for privacy and security inquiries to build trust.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Michigan State University Athletics
Description
The official athletics website for the Michigan State University Spartans providing schedules, rosters, news, tickets, gameday information, and fan resources for various men's and women's sports teams.
Key services
Sports schedules and results, Team rosters and news, Ticket sales and information, Gameday information and promotions, Fan engagement and social media
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Vue.js, Sidearm Sports platform, Cloudfront CDN, Transcend Consent Management
Frameworks
Vue.js
Platforms
Sidearm Sports
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CSP
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Consent management implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Transcend telemetry
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
HTLBid
Tracking pixels
Transcend telemetry
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official university athletics website with comprehensive sports content.
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and CDN for performance.
  3. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent management.
  4. No visible security or privacy red flags.
  5. Social media integration for multiple sports teams.
  6. Ticketing handled via reputable third-party platforms.
  7. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on main pages.
  8. No terms of service or explicit security policy pages found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern JavaScript framework (Vue.js) and utilizes the Sidearm Sports CMS platform, optimized for sports content delivery. Hosting on AWS Cloudfront CDN ensures low latency and high availability. The site includes responsive design and accessibility features, contributing to excellent user experience across devices. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The integration of third-party services for ticketing, advertising, and analytics is well-managed with consent mechanisms in place. Technical risks are minimal, with no signs of deprecated technologies or performance bottlenecks. Opportunities exist to further modernize by adopting additional security standards and enhancing transparency around data protection.
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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