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Security report for ncdhhs.gov

NC Department of Health and Human Services · Government · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is a large government agency responsible for delivering health and human services to the residents of North Carolina, focusing on vulnerable populations such as children, elderly, disabled, and low-income families. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for information on Medicaid, food assistance, mental health services, disability support, and other social services. It also provides resources for providers and the public, including news, contact information, and access to various programs. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 with Bootstrap 5, leveraging modern web technologies and third-party services such as Google Analytics and Monsido for analytics and accessibility. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure hosted on a state government platform. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs privacy-conscious analytics configurations. However, explicit security headers are not clearly visible in the HTML, and there is no visible cookie consent mechanism, which could be improved for compliance and user trust. The WHOIS data is incomplete, lacking registrar and nameserver details, which is unusual but may be due to government domain registry policies. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and serves its public service mission effectively. Strategic recommendations include enhancing visible security headers, implementing a cookie consent banner, and publishing a security policy and vulnerability disclosure information to further strengthen security posture and compliance.

Scanned

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

4 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

  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

  3. 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.

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

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

Keep watching ncdhhs.gov

This scan found 19 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
100
Security headers
55
Email security
50
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
73

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

NCDHHS operates as a key government entity within the healthcare and social services sector of North Carolina. Its market position is authoritative and essential, providing critical services to a broad demographic including vulnerable populations. The agency's business model is public service funded by state and federal resources, with no commercial revenue streams. The website supports transparency, community engagement, and provider coordination. Partnerships with other state agencies and divisions are evident through linked domains. The agency demonstrates strong digital maturity with a focus on accessibility and multilingual support. Growth indicators include ongoing initiatives like rural health transformation and community engagement plans. The strategic ecosystem includes Medicaid, child welfare, mental health, and disability services, positioning NCDHHS as a comprehensive health and human services provider.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with enforced HTTPS and anonymized IP tracking in analytics, reflecting privacy awareness. The absence of explicit security headers in the HTML source suggests potential areas for improvement in defense-in-depth strategies. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The lack of a visible cookie consent mechanism and security policy reduces transparency and may impact compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure information are not publicly available, which could hinder timely reporting and remediation of security issues. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting best practices in security headers, consent management, and public security documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify security headers such as X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Content-Security-Policy to strengthen browser security.
  2. Add a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy laws and improve user trust.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Develop and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure they comply with privacy and security standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
NC Department of Health and Human Services
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
NC Department of Health and Human Services
Description
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services manages the delivery of health and human-related services for all North Carolinians, especially vulnerable populations including children, elderly, disabled, and low-income families.
Key services
Medicaid, Food and Nutrition Services, Children's Services, Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Disability Services, Veteran's Services, Vital Records, Social Services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Bootstrap 5.1.3, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Monsido (accessibility and analytics), GTranslate (language translation widget)
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, Bootstrap CSS Framework
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • IP anonymization in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure cookies and privacy policy

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Marketing tools
Monsido
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official state government website for North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
  2. Comprehensive health and social services information
  3. Multiple accessibility and language options
  4. Strong presence of official social media channels
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. WHOIS data incomplete, possibly due to registry policies
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform with Bootstrap 5 for responsive design, ensuring excellent mobile optimization and accessibility. It integrates Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for user behavior tracking, with IP anonymization enabled. Monsido is used for accessibility and analytics enhancements. The hosting is provided by Digital Commons, a state government service, ensuring reliable infrastructure. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in loading times. The site uses multiple external scripts and stylesheets, including CDN-hosted Bootstrap and translation widgets. Technical debt appears low, but improvements in security header implementation and cookie consent mechanisms are recommended to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.
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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