Skip to main content

Security report for northcountrytrail.org

North Country Trail Association · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The North Country Trail Association (NCTA) is a well-established nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship and promotion of the North Country National Scenic Trail, the longest national scenic trail in the United States. The organization operates through a strong network of volunteers, chapters, and partnerships, focusing on trail maintenance, protection, advocacy, and community engagement. Their business model relies on memberships, donations, and volunteer support, positioning them as a leading entity in the outdoor recreation nonprofit sector. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Font Awesome, and the Foundation CSS framework. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel for analytics and marketing. The site is mobile-optimized with good SEO practices and moderate performance. Hosting is inferred to be with GoDaddy, consistent with WHOIS data. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks several security headers and does not provide a visible security policy or incident response contact. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a privacy compliance gap given the use of tracking technologies. The WHOIS data is transparent and consistent with the organization's identity, supporting legitimacy. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and serves its nonprofit mission effectively. Strategic improvements in security headers, privacy compliance, and explicit security policies would enhance its security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

8 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 northcountrytrail.org

This scan found 23 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
62
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
66

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

NCTA holds a strong market position as the steward of a major national scenic trail, leveraging a volunteer-driven model supported by memberships and donations. Their competitive advantage lies in their extensive volunteer network, partnerships with the National Park Service, and recognized nonprofit credibility (BBB accreditation, Charity Navigator rating). Revenue streams primarily come from memberships, donations, and fundraising events. The target audience includes outdoor enthusiasts, hikers, volunteers, and donors interested in trail conservation and recreation. Growth indicators include active event calendars, volunteer engagement, and digital outreach. The partnership ecosystem includes government agencies and local chapters, reinforcing operational effectiveness and community presence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and no visible sensitive data leaks. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces defense-in-depth. No published security or incident response policies limit transparency and preparedness. The use of third-party scripts like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel without a cookie consent mechanism presents privacy compliance risks under GDPR. There is no evidence of vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a nonprofit informational site but could be improved to meet higher standards and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a visible security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Deploy a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate vulnerabilities and privacy risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
North Country Trail Association
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
North Country Trail Association
Description
The North Country Trail Association (NCTA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to developing, maintaining, protecting, and promoting the North Country National Scenic Trail, the longest National Scenic Trail in America, spanning 4,800 miles across eight states. The organization partners with the National Park Service and a coalition of volunteers, chapters, and sponsors to support trail operations, advocacy, and community engagement.
Key services
Trail maintenance and operations, Trail protection and advocacy, Volunteer coordination and resources, Membership and fundraising, Event organization and community engagement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Font Awesome, Yoast SEO, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Vimeo Player
Frameworks
Foundation CSS framework
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security status domain statuses (clientDeleteProhibited etc.)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Strong nonprofit trust signals including BBB accreditation and Charity Navigator rating.
  3. No visible security policy or incident response information.
  4. No cookie consent mechanism detected despite use of tracking scripts.
  5. WHOIS data is transparent and consistent with the organization's identity.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  7. Social media presence on Facebook and Instagram is clearly linked.
  8. Multiple calls to action for membership, volunteering, and donations.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a mature and widely supported CMS (WordPress) with a modern front-end stack including jQuery and Foundation CSS. SEO is enhanced by Yoast SEO plugin and proper meta tags including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of analytics and social scripts. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts and lack of advanced security headers. Hosting with GoDaddy is standard but no CDN or advanced performance optimizations detected. Opportunities exist to modernize with enhanced security practices and privacy compliance tools.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with northcountrytrail.org. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review northcountrytrail.org.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.