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Security report for nij.gov

National Institute of Justice · Government · United States

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

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is a U.S. government research agency under the Department of Justice, focused on advancing knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through scientific research and funding. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for funding opportunities, publications, events, and resources targeted at law enforcement, researchers, and justice system stakeholders. The site is well-branded, professionally designed, and provides authoritative content consistent with its government status. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern analytics and tracking tools, and it demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and appropriate security headers, though explicit security policies and incident response information are not prominently published. Overall, the site is trustworthy and credible, with minor gaps in privacy compliance such as the absence of a visible cookie consent mechanism.

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

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 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 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

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

Keep watching nij.gov

This scan found 17 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
100
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
78

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

NIJ holds a strong market position as the official research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, providing grants, research, and resources to improve criminal justice practices. Its business model is government-funded research and grant administration, targeting law enforcement agencies, researchers, and policymakers. The site links to multiple partner bureaus within the Office of Justice Programs, indicating a broad partnership ecosystem. The content and services offered reflect a mature organization with a large operational scale. The presence of official social media channels and consistent branding further reinforce its authoritative market presence.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and multiple security headers implemented, reducing common web vulnerabilities. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the lack of a published security policy or incident response contact information represents a compliance gap. Additionally, no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file was found, which could enhance transparency and trust. The site does not display a cookie consent mechanism, which may impact privacy compliance, especially under GDPR or similar regulations. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from improved transparency and privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response information on the website to enhance transparency.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly review and update privacy compliance measures, including GDPR-related requirements.
  5. Maintain and monitor security headers and SSL configurations to ensure ongoing protection.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Institute of Justice
Description
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is dedicated to improving knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science.
Key services
Research funding and grants, Publications and multimedia resources, Events and training, Data archives and datasets, Compliance testing for body armor
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, YouTube embeds, Verint Unified Web SDK, DataTables, AnchorJS, Clipboard.js
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure cookies likely (not explicitly visible)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Google Custom Search Engine
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive content on criminal justice research and funding
  3. Strong branding and consistent design
  4. Good technical implementation with modern CMS and analytics
  5. Secure HTTPS with proper security headers
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  7. Limited WHOIS data due to government domain privacy policies
  8. No cookie consent mechanism visible, potential compliance gap
  9. No explicit security policy or incident response info published
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, indicating a robust technical foundation. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking, and uses Verint Unified Web SDK for user experience analytics. The site employs DataTables for tabular data presentation and AnchorJS for enhanced navigation. Performance is moderate, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and security headers. There is no indication of outdated or vulnerable libraries. Opportunities exist to improve privacy compliance and security transparency, but overall the technical infrastructure is solid and well-maintained.
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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