Skip to main content

Security report for nsf.gov

National Science Foundation · Government · United States

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a U.S. federal government agency dedicated to supporting science and engineering research and education nationwide. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for funding opportunities, award management, news, and educational resources targeting researchers, educators, students, and industry stakeholders. The site is professionally designed with clear navigation, mobile optimization, and accessibility compliance, reflecting a mature digital presence. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 and leverages modern analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, and the Digital Analytics Program. It employs the U.S. Web Design System for consistent government branding and user experience. The site is served over HTTPS with strong SSL configuration, though explicit security headers are not fully confirmed in the provided data. From a security perspective, NSF demonstrates good practices including a published vulnerability disclosure policy and privacy policy, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved for GDPR compliance. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected. WHOIS data is privacy protected, which is typical for government domains, and the .gov TLD strongly supports legitimacy. Overall, the website is a trustworthy, authoritative source for science funding information with a strong security posture and professional digital infrastructure. Strategic recommendations include enhancing visible security headers, implementing cookie consent, and publishing incident response contacts more explicitly.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of nsf.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Domain Expires Soon

      Domain expires in 18 days

      What to do: Renew domain registration before expiration

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

Keep watching nsf.gov

This scan found 18 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
100
Security headers
60
Email security
80
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
77

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

NSF holds a leading position as the primary U.S. government agency funding scientific research and education. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on grant funding and public service. The website targets a broad audience including researchers, educators, students, industry, and policymakers. The agency's extensive network and funding programs position it as a critical enabler of scientific advancement. The digital presence supports transparency, outreach, and engagement with stakeholders. Partnerships with other government and research entities are implied through linked domains and resources. Growth indicators include recent initiatives in AI and quantum research funding. The NSF's operations are consistent with a large, enterprise-level government organization with a focus on innovation, STEM workforce development, and technology acceleration. The website content and structure reflect these priorities clearly.

Security posture

The NSF website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and a published vulnerability disclosure policy. The presence of privacy and research security policies indicates compliance with federal standards. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analysis. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options were not confirmed and should be verified. The absence of a security.txt file or explicit incident response contact is a minor gap. Analytics scripts are used responsibly with privacy policies in place, though cookie consent mechanisms are lacking. Overall, the site is secure but could improve transparency and technical security headers to enhance defense in depth.

Recommendations

  1. Publish and verify comprehensive security headers including CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Implement a visible security.txt file with incident response contact information.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to improve GDPR compliance and user privacy control.
  4. Regularly audit third-party analytics and tracking scripts for security and privacy compliance.
  5. Enhance visibility and accessibility of security and privacy policies to build user trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Science Foundation
Description
NSF is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories by funding research and education proposals.
Key services
Research funding, Education support, Award management, Public access to funded projects
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, AddToAny, js-cookie
Frameworks
US Web Design System (USWDS)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Use of security analytics scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Digital Analytics Program (DAP), Crazy Egg
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Crazy Egg, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Marketing tools
AddToAny
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 and well-structured content
  3. Strong focus on science and engineering research funding
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  5. Good use of modern web technologies and analytics
  6. Clear contact information and social media presence
  7. No detected WAF or blocking mechanisms
  8. Privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies present
  9. No cookie consent banner detected, potential GDPR improvement area
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring a robust content management framework. It uses the U.S. Web Design System for consistent government styling and accessibility. Performance is optimized with asynchronous loading of analytics and tracking scripts. The site is mobile responsive and accessible, with proper meta tags and SEO elements. Use of external analytics and marketing tools is balanced with privacy considerations. Hosting details are not explicit but likely government-managed infrastructure. Technical risks are minimal, with opportunities to improve security headers and cookie consent implementation.
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. 80/100Low23 findingsView report
  2. 80/100Low23 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with nsf.gov. 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 nsf.gov.

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.