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Security report for nilu.no

Norsk institutt for luftforskning · Other · Norway

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

NILU (Norsk institutt for luftforskning) is a well-established Norwegian non-profit research institute specializing in climate and environmental research. Founded in 1969, it holds a strong market position as an internationally leading institute in its field. The website reflects a professional and content-rich platform targeting researchers, policymakers, and environmental stakeholders. NILU offers a range of services including atmospheric research, urban air quality studies, environmental toxin analysis, and laboratory services. The organization is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, reinforcing its credibility and commitment to quality and environmental management. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern libraries such as jQuery, Bootstrap, and Select2, hosted behind Cloudflare. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices. However, performance metrics are unavailable, and some technical debt exists in the form of missing or invalid SSL/TLS configuration, which is a critical security concern. Security posture is weakened by the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, exposing users to potential risks. While security headers are present, the lack of HTTPS and HSTS reduces overall security. Privacy compliance is good with a comprehensive GDPR-compliant privacy policy, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a gap. Contact information is complete and transparent, including email, phone, and physical addresses, alongside active social media channels. Overall, NILU's website is professional and trustworthy but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and maintain trust. Strategic recommendations include implementing a valid SSL certificate, enabling modern TLS protocols, and adding cookie consent mechanisms to enhance privacy compliance.

Scanned

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

5 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 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

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

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

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

Keep watching nilu.no

This scan found 14 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • 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
50
Security headers
65
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
63

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

NILU operates as a non-profit research institute focused on environmental and climate sciences, serving a specialized market of researchers, governmental bodies, and environmental organizations. Its competitive advantage lies in its long history, ISO certifications, and international recognition. The business model centers on research projects, publications, and laboratory services. The presence of subsidiaries and partner organizations like NORIN, CIENS, and Framsenteret indicates a strong collaborative ecosystem. NILU's digital presence supports its mission with multilingual content and active engagement through social media. Growth indicators include recent publications and news updates. The organization maintains transparency with clear contact details and legal information, reinforcing its credibility.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate to low due to the critical absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, which are fundamental for secure web communication. Security headers such as HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection are implemented, indicating awareness of security best practices. However, the lack of HTTPS undermines these efforts. There is no evidence of incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies, which could impact readiness for security incidents. Privacy practices are generally good with GDPR compliance, but cookie consent is missing. The security culture appears to prioritize quality and compliance certifications but needs to address web security gaps urgently to protect users and data integrity.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and enforce modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and 1.3) and disable legacy protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload options.
  4. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user trust.
  5. Develop and publish an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy to improve security readiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Stiftelsen NILU
Registration number
941 705 561
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using up-to-date libraries such as jQuery, Bootstrap, Select2, and DataTables, ensuring a rich interactive user experience. Hosting is managed via Cloudflare, providing caching and some security benefits. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with good SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD). However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent significant technical risks. Performance data is missing, but the use of CDN resources and caching suggests moderate to good performance potential. Technical debt includes missing cookie consent and incomplete security configurations, which should be addressed to align with best practices.
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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