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Security report for mt.gov

State Information Technology Services Division · Government · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website mt.gov serves as the official online portal for the State of Montana, providing a wide range of government services, resources, and information to residents, businesses, visitors, and government employees. It acts as a centralized hub for accessing employment opportunities, business registration, tax services, driver licensing, legislative and judicial information, and tourism-related content. The site is well-positioned as the authoritative digital presence for Montana state government, with a large user base and comprehensive service offerings. From a technical perspective, the site employs modern web technologies including Bootstrap, jQuery, and Google Tag Manager for analytics. The design is responsive and user-friendly, with clear navigation and consistent branding. Performance is moderate, and accessibility features are basic but present. The site uses HTTPS with a good SSL configuration, though DNSSEC is not enabled, which could be improved for enhanced DNS security. Security posture is solid with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of explicit privacy policies, terms of service, and incident response contacts represents a compliance gap. Cookie consent is implemented, indicating some attention to privacy regulations. The domain is a legitimate government .gov domain with a long registration history, enhancing trustworthiness. Overall, the website is a professional, secure, and credible government portal with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security documentation. Strategic enhancements in these areas would further strengthen user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

5 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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching mt.gov

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

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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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
69

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 State of Montana operates this website as a critical government service platform, targeting residents, businesses, and visitors. Its market position is that of the primary official digital gateway for state government services. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery and information dissemination. Key revenue streams are not applicable, but the site supports government operational efficiency and citizen engagement. The partnership ecosystem includes various state agencies and official government subdomains. Growth indicators include continuous updates and integration of new services. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining high security and compliance standards given the sensitive nature of government data and services.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were detected. The use of Google Tag Manager introduces some privacy considerations, but cookie consent mechanisms are implemented. The lack of DNSSEC and absence of published security policies or incident response contacts are notable gaps. Compliance with GDPR or similar regulations is not explicitly documented. Overall, the site is secure for its purpose but would benefit from enhanced transparency and formal security documentation to improve incident readiness and user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish clear and comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages.
  3. Provide explicit contact information for security incidents and data protection inquiries.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards for inclusivity.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
State Information Technology Services Division
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
State Information Technology Services Division
Description
Official website of the State of Montana providing government services, information, and resources to residents, businesses, and visitors.
Key services
Online government services, Employment resources, Business registration and tax services, Driver licensing and vehicle registration, Unemployment claims, Access to legislative and judicial information, Tourism and visitor information
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap 4.5.3, Bootstrap 5.1.3, jQuery 3.6.0, Popper.js 1.16.1, FullCalendar 5.3.2, FontAwesome 6.2.0, Google Fonts (Roboto, Open Sans), CookieConsent v2.9.1, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Use of secure cookies (implied)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Montana state government website with comprehensive resources.
  2. Extensive use of external official government subdomains.
  3. No privacy policy or terms of service pages explicitly found on homepage.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism implemented.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on homepage; contact form and address present.
  6. Modern frontend technologies used with Bootstrap and jQuery.
  7. Good security posture with HTTPS and transfer protection.
  8. No signs of malicious or adult content.
  9. Google Tag Manager used for analytics and tracking.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of Bootstrap versions 4 and 5, jQuery, Popper.js, FullCalendar, and FontAwesome, indicating a robust and modern frontend stack. Google Fonts and CDN-hosted libraries improve performance and reliability. The site is mobile responsive and uses cookie consent scripts for privacy compliance. Hosting details are not explicit, but the domain is government-owned and likely hosted on secure infrastructure. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site does not appear to use a common CMS, suggesting a custom or government-developed platform. Technical risks include potential complexity from multiple Bootstrap versions and reliance on third-party scripts for analytics and cookie management.
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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