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Security report for muthesius-kunsthochschule.de

Muthesius Kunsthochschule · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Muthesius Kunsthochschule is a medium-sized, specialized educational institution in Germany focused on art and design education. It offers a range of Bachelor and Master programs in fields such as Kommunikationsdesign, Industriedesign, Freie Kunst, and Raumstrategien. The institution maintains a strong market position as the only art university in Schleswig-Holstein with international reach and interdisciplinary offerings. The website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Events Manager, and accessibility plugins, hosted by planet-ocean-hosting. It features comprehensive content, good mobile optimization, and accessibility features. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms, though some security headers could be improved. The site demonstrates good privacy compliance with GDPR-aligned policies and active user consent management. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained, supporting the institution's educational mission effectively.

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

6 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 Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  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 muthesius-kunsthochschule.de

This scan found 22 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

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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
15
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
68
Average
55

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 institution targets prospective and current students, educators, and art professionals. Its business model is education-focused, supported by public funding and academic partnerships. The website reflects a mature digital presence with active event management, news updates, and social media integration. Partnerships with organizations like Cumulus Association and ELIA Art Schools enhance its international profile. The institution emphasizes accessibility, diversity, and inclusion, aligning with modern educational values. Growth indicators include active recruitment campaigns and international student participation. The website's ecosystem includes multiple subdomains for specialized programs and research projects, indicating a broad academic scope.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a good SSL configuration and uses cookie consent tools to comply with privacy regulations. While no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No dedicated security or incident response policies are publicly visible, which is common for educational sites but could be enhanced for transparency. The use of reputable plugins and regular updates is inferred but should be continuously monitored. Overall, the security posture is adequate for the institution's risk profile but could benefit from enhanced header policies and incident response disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Regularly audit and update all WordPress plugins and core to minimize vulnerability exposure.
  4. Enhance accessibility features further to maintain compliance with evolving standards and improve user experience.
  5. Consider adding explicit data retention policies and transparency regarding analytics data handling.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Muthesius Kunsthochschule
Description
Die Muthesius Kunsthochschule in Kiel ist die einzige Kunsthochschule Schleswig-Holsteins, die künstlerisch-gestalterische Entwicklungs- und Forschungsvorhaben in den Bereichen Kunst, Raumkonzeption und Design anbietet. Sie bietet Bachelor- und Masterstudiengänge in Kommunikationsdesign, Industriedesign, Freie Kunst, Kunst Lehramt an Gymnasien, Raumstrategien und verwandten Disziplinen an.
Key services
Bachelor- und Masterstudiengänge in Kunst und Design, Forschung und Projekte im künstlerisch-gestalterischen Bereich, Workshops, Symposien und internationale Kooperationen, Bibliothek und Werkstätten, Beratung und Bewerbungsunterstützung
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.6.4, jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI, Events Manager plugin, Borlabs Cookie plugin, Responsive Lightbox, Contact Form 7, Font Awesome, Matomo Analytics, EyeAble Accessibility Plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
PHP-based CMS, Apache or similar web server (inferred)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security and accessibility plugins

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Borlabs Cookie
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and professionally presented.
  3. Strong focus on art and design education with multiple study programs.
  4. Comprehensive cookie and privacy policies with consent mechanisms.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and accessibility tools.
  6. Active event calendar and news updates indicate ongoing activity.
  7. Social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
  8. No signs of security misconfigurations or exposed sensitive data.
  9. No adult or questionable content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress 6.6.4 with a modern front-end stack including jQuery and jQuery UI. It uses several plugins for event management, cookie consent, responsive lightbox, and accessibility enhancements. Hosting is provided by planet-ocean-hosting, with multiple authoritative name servers. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, especially for mobile devices. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. Accessibility is supported by the EyeAble plugin and localized date pickers. The site uses Matomo for analytics, indicating a preference for privacy-respecting tools. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from performance tuning and enhanced security header implementation.
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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