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Security report for nmdc.no

Norsk marint datasenter · Government · Norway

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Norsk marint datasenter (NMDC) operates as a national infrastructure providing seamless access to documented marine datasets covering key Norwegian sea areas, primarily serving the marine research community. The website presents a collaborative ecosystem involving multiple reputable Norwegian research institutions and universities, positioning NMDC as a central hub for marine data access and related events. The business model focuses on data provision and infrastructure support for scientific research, with a medium-sized organizational footprint established since 2014. Technically, the website employs common web technologies such as jQuery, Foundation CSS framework, and Font Awesome icons, with external resources loaded from trusted CDNs. However, the site suffers from slow load times and lacks a valid SSL/TLS certificate, resulting in HTTP-only access which undermines security and user trust. Accessibility and mobile optimization are rated good, but SEO and performance require improvement. From a security perspective, the absence of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols is a critical vulnerability. No security headers or advanced DNS security features like DNSSEC are implemented. The SPF DNS record is set to reject all emails, which may impact legitimate email delivery. No privacy or cookie policies are present, indicating compliance gaps with GDPR and related regulations. Contact information is clearly provided, but no incident response or security policy details are available. Overall, NMDC's website is functional and informative but requires urgent security enhancements and privacy compliance improvements to protect user data and enhance trust. Strategic recommendations include implementing HTTPS, adding security headers, publishing privacy and cookie policies, and optimizing site performance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of nmdc.no. 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. 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

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

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

Keep watching nmdc.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
75
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
62

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

NMDC holds a strong market position as a national marine data infrastructure in Norway, collaborating with numerous established research institutions. Its competitive advantage lies in providing centralized, documented marine datasets accessible via search by text, location, and time. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on research facilitation and data sharing. Revenue streams are likely public funding and institutional support. The target customers are marine researchers and scientific organizations. Growth indicators include active event hosting and continuous content updates. The partnership ecosystem is broad and reputable, enhancing credibility and reach. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to modernize technical infrastructure and improve compliance to maintain leadership in marine data services.

Security posture

The current security posture is weak due to the lack of HTTPS and absence of security headers, exposing users to risks such as data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. No incident response or security policy information is provided, indicating limited preparedness for security events. Compliance with GDPR is questionable given the missing privacy and cookie policies. The SPF record is restrictive but may cause legitimate email delivery issues. No vulnerable libraries were detected, but the overall security configuration is basic and requires significant improvement to meet modern standards and protect sensitive research data.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a valid SSL/TLS certificate and enforce HTTPS site-wide to secure data in transit.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to comply with GDPR and inform users about data practices.
  3. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Enable DNSSEC and configure CAA records to enhance domain security and certificate issuance control.
  5. Optimize website performance to reduce load times and improve user experience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a mix of established front-end technologies including jQuery, Foundation CSS, and Font Awesome, with resources loaded from reputable CDNs. The CMS is not explicitly identified but appears custom or proprietary. Hosting is on IP 95.142.174.78 with nameservers linked to imr.no, indicating hosting by a Norwegian research institute. Performance is slow with a page load time exceeding 4.5 seconds and a moderate number of resources (43). Accessibility is supported by Monsido scripts and focus-visible polyfills, contributing to good accessibility scores. SEO is basic with meta tags and Open Graph tags present but no structured data like JSON-LD. The lack of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols is a significant technical risk. Overall, the infrastructure is functional but outdated in security and performance aspects.
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. 60/100Medium35 findingsView report
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