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Security report for nsf.gov

National Science Foundation · Government · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

80/100

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, research initiatives, and science communication targeted at researchers, educators, students, and industry professionals. The NSF holds a leading market position as the primary federal agency for science funding, with a clear mission to advance scientific progress and innovation across all states and territories. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and the US Web Design System for accessibility and responsive design. The site demonstrates good performance and excellent mobile optimization, with clear navigation and professional branding consistent with government standards. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and includes a vulnerability disclosure policy, privacy policy, and uses trusted .gov domain infrastructure. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the overall security posture is strong with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is basic but adequate for a government site, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Overall, the NSF website is a highly credible, professional, and secure government resource with excellent content quality and user experience. Recommendations include enhancing visible security headers, adding cookie consent mechanisms, and publishing a security.txt file to improve incident response transparency.

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

3 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

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

Keep watching nsf.gov

This scan found 17 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
100
Security headers
60
Email security
80
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
80

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 operates as an essential government entity focused on funding and advancing scientific research and education. Its business model revolves around grant funding and supporting STEM workforce development. The agency targets a broad audience including academic researchers, students, entrepreneurs, and industry stakeholders. The website reflects a mature digital presence with strong branding and trust signals such as official social media channels and .gov domain usage. NSF's partnership ecosystem includes related government portals like Research.gov and Grants.gov, reinforcing its authoritative position. The site content and structure support NSF's strategic goals of promoting discovery, accelerating innovation, and creating a STEM workforce nationwide.

Security posture

The NSF website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, a vulnerability disclosure policy, and privacy policy compliance. The use of a .gov domain inherently provides trust and restricts registration to government entities. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options were not confirmed in the provided data and should be verified. The absence of a security.txt file and cookie consent mechanism are minor gaps. Overall, the site aligns well with government security best practices and demonstrates readiness for incident response, though improvements in transparency and cookie compliance are recommended.

Recommendations

  1. Verify and explicitly implement security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a security.txt file at the root domain to provide clear incident response contact information.
  3. Implement a cookie consent banner or mechanism to enhance privacy compliance and user awareness.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.
  5. Maintain consistent updates to privacy and security policies reflecting evolving regulatory requirements.

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. NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science by funding research and education proposals from scientists, engineers, and educators across the country.
Key services
Funding opportunities, Award management, Research initiatives, Science communication
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, Digital Analytics Program (DAP), AddToAny
Frameworks
US Web Design System (USWDS)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy present
  • Privacy policy available
  • Use of official .gov domain

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Ad networks
Crazy Egg
Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via GTM), Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Marketing tools
AddToAny
Transparency
good

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 science funding and research information
  3. Well-structured navigation with clear categories
  4. Multiple official social media links present
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No visible forms collecting personal data except search form
  7. No cookie consent banner detected
  8. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  9. Privacy and vulnerability disclosure policies present
  10. WHOIS data not publicly available due to .gov domain restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The NSF website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform, utilizing the US Web Design System for accessibility and responsive design. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools including Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and the Digital Analytics Program. The site loads scripts asynchronously to optimize performance and employs structured navigation with mega menus for usability. The presence of multiple favicon sizes and Open Graph metadata supports SEO and social sharing. Hosting details are not explicitly identified but the use of .gov domain suggests government-managed infrastructure. Overall, the technical implementation is robust with opportunities to enhance security headers and cookie management.
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. 80/100 +3Low23 findingsView report
  2. 77/100Low24 findingsView report
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