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Security report for nps.gov

National Park Service · Government · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The National Park Service website (nps.gov) serves as the official digital presence of the U.S. federal agency responsible for managing national parks and cultural heritage sites. It provides comprehensive information for visitors, educators, volunteers, and partners, including park details, educational resources, event information, and multimedia content. The site is authoritative and well-positioned as the primary source for national park information in the United States. Technically, the website employs a mature infrastructure with CommonSpot CMS, legacy jQuery 1.12, and modern web standards including HTTPS and responsive design. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although some legacy scripts and lack of explicit cookie consent mechanisms indicate areas for modernization. From a security perspective, the site benefits from HTTPS encryption and published privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies. However, the absence of explicit security headers and cookie consent banners suggests room for improvement in compliance and defense-in-depth. The WHOIS data is incomplete but typical for a .gov domain, which inherently carries high trust and legitimacy. Overall, the website is a high-quality, trustworthy government resource with strong content and user experience. Strategic enhancements in security headers, privacy compliance, and incident response transparency would further strengthen its posture and user trust.

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

4 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 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 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 nps.gov

This scan found 21 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
85
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
72

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention nps.gov, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
596
Employees
4
Customers
479
Third parties
113
Weak passwords
29%

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for nps.gov.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The National Park Service operates as a government entity under the U.S. Department of the Interior, focusing on conservation, education, and public engagement related to national parks. Its market position is unique as the official federal agency, providing authoritative content and services without commercial intent. Revenue streams are government-funded, supplemented by donations and partnerships. The target audience includes tourists, educators, volunteers, and conservation partners. The website supports a broad partnership ecosystem including the Department of the Interior and the National Park Foundation. Growth indicators include digital engagement through social media and mobile app promotion. The agency maintains a strong brand presence and trust through consistent government branding and compliance with accessibility and privacy standards.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and published privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies. The lack of visible security headers and cookie consent mechanisms indicates partial compliance with modern security best practices and privacy regulations such as GDPR. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. Incident response contact information is not explicitly provided, which could be improved. Overall, the site maintains a secure environment appropriate for a government informational portal but would benefit from enhanced header policies and privacy controls to meet evolving compliance standards.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Deploy a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations, improving transparency and user control over tracking.
  3. Publish clear incident response and security contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve trust.
  4. Add a security.txt file at the root domain to standardize vulnerability disclosure and communication.
  5. Modernize JavaScript libraries and frameworks to current versions to reduce technical debt and potential security risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Park Service
Description
Discover America's stories. Plan your visit and explore the diverse landscapes, national parks, and cultural treasures managed by the National Park Service.
Key services
Park information and planning, Educational resources, Volunteer and donation opportunities, Multimedia content, Event information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.12, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, Google Tag Manager, Digital Analytics Program (DAP), Video.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Privacy policy and vulnerability disclosure policy published
  • Secure forms with no visible sensitive data exposure

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Digital Analytics Program (DAP), Crazy Egg
Marketing tools
Crazy Egg
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 TLD
  2. Comprehensive content about national parks and related topics
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  4. Good use of HTTPS and privacy policies
  5. No visible contact emails or phone numbers, contact via forms
  6. No cookie consent banner detected
  7. Use of legacy jQuery 1.12 but overall modern design
  8. Social media presence on major platforms
  9. No WHOIS registrar or registrant info publicly available, typical for .gov
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on CommonSpot CMS with legacy jQuery 1.12 and custom JavaScript. It uses modern HTML5 and CSS with responsive design techniques and Google Fonts. Analytics are implemented via Google Tag Manager and the Digital Analytics Program, supplemented by Crazy Egg for user behavior tracking. The site loads moderately fast but could improve by reducing legacy scripts and optimizing assets. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, supporting inclusive design. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph tags, and structured navigation. Hosting details are not explicit but likely government-managed infrastructure. Overall, the technical implementation is solid but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security configurations.
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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