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Security report for nfb.ca

National Film Board of Canada · Media · Canada

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) operates a comprehensive digital platform offering streaming access to Canadian documentary, animation, and fiction films. As a government-funded media organization, it holds a strong market position in Canadian cultural media, providing educational content and public engagement through events and newsletters. The website is professionally designed with excellent content quality and consistent branding, targeting a general audience interested in Canadian film and culture. Technically, the site leverages modern web technologies including JavaScript frameworks, Google Tag Manager, Sentry for error monitoring, and AWS Cloudfront CDN for hosting and performance optimization. The platform is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices and fast loading times. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses CSRF tokens in forms, and provides cookie consent mechanisms. However, it lacks explicit security headers and a public security policy or vulnerability disclosure page. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is strong with clear privacy and cookie policies aligned with GDPR standards. Overall, the NFB website presents a low-risk profile with high trustworthiness and professionalism. The absence of WHOIS data is likely due to registry privacy policies and does not detract from the legitimacy of this government entity's online presence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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

3 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"

  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

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

Keep watching nfb.ca

This scan found 21 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
90
Security headers
30
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
71

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 NFB is a large, government-affiliated media organization specializing in Canadian film production and distribution. Its business model is primarily government-funded, focusing on cultural preservation, education, and public engagement. The platform supports multiple content categories including documentaries, animation, and educational films, appealing to a broad audience. The organization maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with related domains for production, events, and job postings. The website's active content management and social media presence indicate a mature digital strategy supporting growth and outreach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement, CSRF protection, and cookie consent mechanisms. Use of Sentry indicates proactive error and incident monitoring. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and lack of a public security policy or vulnerability disclosure page represent areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found, and privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR-compliant. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not publicly documented, suggesting an opportunity to enhance transparency and user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Create and publicly disclose a security policy and vulnerability disclosure program to improve transparency and encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Conduct regular security audits to identify and remediate any potential vulnerabilities or outdated libraries.
  4. Enhance incident response documentation and provide clear contact channels for security issues.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies regularly to ensure ongoing compliance with evolving regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Film Board of Canada
Description
Watch quality Canadian documentary, animation and fiction films online
Key services
Streaming Canadian films, Film production, Educational content, Public screenings, Newsletters
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Sentry (error tracking), Cloudfront CDN, Modernizr, jQuery
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF token present in forms
  • Use of Sentry for error monitoring
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-out information

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager), Facebook Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Reddit Pixel
Marketing tools
Facebook Pixel, Reddit Pixel
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 rich multimedia content
  2. Strong focus on Canadian film culture and education
  3. Multiple carousels and featured content indicate active content management
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CDNs for performance
  5. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly presented with consent mechanism
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main page; contact via help center
  7. Social media presence on major platforms with official accounts
  8. No security.txt or explicit security policy page found
  9. No WHOIS data available from CIRA WHOIS service, possibly due to privacy or registry restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern JavaScript-based front end with extensive use of asynchronous scripts and CDNs for performance. It uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing tags, and Sentry for error tracking. Hosting is on AWS infrastructure with Cloudfront CDN, ensuring fast global delivery. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with semantic HTML and ARIA attributes. There is no detected CMS, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Performance is fast with optimized images and lazy loading. Technical risks are minimal but could be further reduced by adding security headers and improving documentation.
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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