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Security report for netherlandsworldwide.nl

Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken · Government · Netherlands

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

NetherlandsWorldwide is an official Dutch government website managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken). It serves as a comprehensive information portal for Dutch citizens and residents who travel, live, work, or study abroad. The website provides detailed guidance on topics such as travel, identity documents, work, family, education, living arrangements, financial matters, transport, and health. It is positioned as the authoritative source for overseas Dutch citizens, offering trusted and official content. Technically, the website is built using modern web technologies including React and Next.js, and is managed via the Hippo CMS (Bloomreach Experience Manager). It integrates Piwik Pro analytics for user tracking and employs best practices such as HTTPS and script nonce attributes for security. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, contributing to a positive user experience. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security headers, a published security policy, and incident response contact information. Privacy compliance is limited by the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. No vulnerabilities or suspicious content were detected, and the domain registration aligns well with the official government entity, indicating high legitimacy. Overall, NetherlandsWorldwide is a trustworthy and professional government portal with strong business credibility and technical implementation. To enhance its security posture and privacy compliance, it is recommended to publish clear privacy and cookie policies, implement security headers, and provide incident response contacts. These improvements would further strengthen user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of netherlandsworldwide.nl. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

  2. 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

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 27 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

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Keep watching netherlandsworldwide.nl

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
65
Security headers
85
Email security
65
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
67

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

NetherlandsWorldwide operates as a government information portal under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Its market positioning is that of the official source for Dutch citizens abroad, providing authoritative and comprehensive information on a wide range of topics relevant to living and traveling internationally. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and information dissemination. The target customer segment includes Dutch nationals and residents overseas, expatriates, and travelers. The website's partnership ecosystem includes government entities and related official domains. Growth indicators are aligned with government digital service expansion and modernization efforts. The portal's operations emphasize reliability, accessibility, and comprehensive coverage of citizen needs abroad.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of nonce attributes on scripts suggests an awareness of Content Security Policy best practices. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options is a gap. There is no published security policy or incident response contact information, which limits transparency and readiness communication. No vulnerable libraries or security issues were detected in the provided content. Privacy compliance is partial due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved by formalizing policies and enhancing header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details and consent mechanisms.
  2. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Provide clear incident response and security contact information on the website.
  4. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance transparency around data collection and retention policies to improve privacy compliance and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken
Description
Netherlandsworldwide.nl - All the information you need if you travel, live, work or study outside the Netherlands.
Key services
Travel information, Identity documents, Work abroad guidance, Family and education information, Health and money related government services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, JavaScript, Piwik Pro Analytics, Hippo CMS (Bloomreach Experience Manager)
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of nonce attributes on scripts for CSP
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik Pro
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik Pro
Marketing tools
Piwik Pro Analytics, Pastease survey tool
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Dutch government website for citizens abroad
  2. Comprehensive navigation covering travel, identity, work, family, education, living, money, transport, health
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policy pages found in the scanned content
  4. Uses modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible, only a contact page link
  7. Good accessibility and SEO practices observed
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring React and Next.js, enabling server-side rendering and improved performance. It uses Hippo CMS (Bloomreach Experience Manager) for content management, indicating a robust enterprise-grade platform. Analytics are handled via Piwik Pro, a privacy-focused analytics solution. The site loads multiple CSS stylesheets and JavaScript chunks asynchronously, supporting good performance and user experience. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well implemented. However, the absence of some security headers and explicit privacy controls suggests areas for technical improvement. Overall, the infrastructure is solid with opportunities to enhance security and privacy features.
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. 66/100Medium28 findingsView report
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