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Security report for nifes.no

Havforskningsinstituttet · Government · Norway

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Havforskningsinstituttet (HI) is the largest marine research institute in Europe, based in Norway, with approximately 1030 employees. The institute focuses on marine research, advisory services, and environmental monitoring to support sustainable management of marine ecosystems. The website reflects a professional government entity with comprehensive content, clear navigation, and multilingual support. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including jQuery, Select2, Foundation CSS, and integrates analytics and consent management tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, Monsido, and CookieYes. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though security headers could be enhanced. Privacy compliance is well addressed with detailed cookie consent and privacy policies in Norwegian, aligned with GDPR. The WHOIS data is unavailable due to Norid policies typical for .no domains, but the domain and website content are consistent with a legitimate government research institute. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-maintained, and serves its audience effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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 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

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Cloudflare, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching nifes.no

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.

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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
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
70

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

HI holds a strong market position as a government research institute specializing in marine science. Its business model centers on providing scientific research, policy advice, and monitoring services to government bodies, industry, and the public. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with active social media channels and partnerships with related marine data and environmental organizations. The institute's large size and certifications like Miljøfyrtårn reinforce its credibility. Revenue streams are likely government funding and research grants. The target audience includes researchers, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the general public interested in marine issues. The partnership ecosystem includes Norwegian Marine Data Centre and other marine environmental initiatives, indicating collaborative operations.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive information. Cookie consent is implemented with granular user controls, reflecting good privacy practices. The use of third-party analytics and tracking tools is transparent and consent-based. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and lack of a published security.txt file or incident response contacts are areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or suspicious patterns were detected in the content or scripts. The site appears compliant with GDPR and Norwegian data protection standards, but could enhance incident response readiness and security header implementation to further strengthen defenses.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and incident reporting.
  3. Add explicit incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Regularly update third-party libraries and monitor for vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance monitoring and alerting mechanisms for security events.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Havforskningsinstituttet
Registration number
971 349 077
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Havforskningsinstituttet
Description
Havforskningsinstituttet (HI) er det største marine forskningsinstituttet i Europa med ca. 1030 ansatte. Hovedaktivitetene er forskning, rådgivning og overvåkning. Instituttet skal være en ledende kunnskapsleverandør for bærekraftig forvaltning av marine økosystemer.
Key services
Marine research, Advisory services, Environmental monitoring
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.2.1, Select2 4.0.6-rc.0, Foundation 6.3.1 CSS, Font Awesome 4.7.0, Google Fonts (Inter, Lora, Open Sans), Google Tag Manager, CookieYes consent management, Monsido analytics and heatmaps, Focus-visible polyfill
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with granular controls
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security storage consent in Google Analytics config

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar, Monsido
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Monsido
Marketing tools
CookieYes
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 content and no blocking detected
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent mechanism with detailed categories and controls
  3. Strong presence of official contact information and social media links
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. No evidence of security misconfigurations or exposed sensitive data
  6. WHOIS data is unavailable due to Norid policies, common for .no domains
  7. Website content is in Norwegian with English version available
  8. No terms of service page explicitly found
  9. Miljøfyrtårn environmental certification is displayed
  10. Newsletter subscription form uses Mailchimp service
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring jQuery, Select2, Foundation CSS framework, and Font Awesome icons. It uses Lime CMS as inferred from internal comments. The site loads external resources from reputable CDNs and integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics management. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features such as focus-visible polyfill and ARIA labels. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The site uses CookieYes for cookie consent management and Monsido for analytics and heatmaps, indicating a focus on user experience and compliance. There is room for improvement in security headers and potential hosting provider transparency.
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. 54/100Medium26 findingsView report
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