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Security report for nsfpolicyoutreach.com

U.S. National Science Foundation · Government · United States

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The NSF Policy Office Outreach website serves as an official resource platform for the U.S. National Science Foundation, providing current information on NSF policies, procedures, and funding opportunities. It targets researchers, grant applicants, and policy stakeholders, offering event notifications, webinars, and resource centers to facilitate engagement with NSF programs. The site is operated by an NSF contractor and integrates third-party services like Constant Contact and Salesforce for event management. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the Elementor page builder and JupiterX theme, leveraging modern plugins and Google Analytics for tracking. The site is mobile-optimized with good navigation and professional design. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain protections in place, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are missing. Privacy compliance is lacking due to absence of privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is trustworthy and authoritative, but could improve compliance and security configurations.

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

9 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 nsfpolicyoutreach.com

This scan found 28 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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
55

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

The website positions itself as a key outreach channel for NSF policy and grant information, serving a niche government audience. Its business model is informational and event-driven, relying on contractor services for user engagement. The site demonstrates consistent branding aligned with NSF, reinforcing its credibility. The use of Google Analytics and marketing tools indicates moderate user tracking for outreach effectiveness. The absence of phone contacts and physical addresses suggests a primarily digital engagement model. The domain age and registration details support legitimacy. There are no indications of suspicious partnerships or affiliate programs. Growth potential lies in expanding event offerings and improving compliance transparency.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain status protections such as clientDeleteProhibited. However, the lack of DNSSEC and security headers like Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represents gaps that could be exploited. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The site does not provide explicit incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, which limits transparency in security management. Privacy compliance is weak, lacking privacy and cookie policies, which could expose the site to regulatory risks. Overall, the security posture is functional but could benefit from enhancements in domain security, headers, and compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to improve browser security.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy and provide incident response contact information to enhance security transparency.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. National Science Foundation
Description
Resource for current information and key insights into NSF policies, procedures, and specific funding opportunities. Provides news and event notices related to NSF grants and policy outreach.
Key services
NSF Grants Conferences, Webinar Series, Resource Center for NSF policies, Event notifications and registrations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, JupiterX theme, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, jQuery, Font Awesome, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
WordPress CMS, Elementor page builder
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP protections
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Marketing tools
Constant Contact, Salesforce
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government contractor operated outreach platform for NSF policy and grants information.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy pages found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  4. Site uses modern WordPress technologies and plugins.
  5. No phone numbers or physical addresses explicitly listed.
  6. Contact email is grants_conference@nsf.gov, a valid NSF domain email.
  7. Site uses Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking.
  8. No advertising or affiliate programs detected.
  9. Content is professional, relevant, and safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using the Elementor page builder and JupiterX theme, supported by Jet plugins for enhanced functionality. It integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for user tracking and uses Cloudflare DNS services. The site is mobile responsive with good navigation and professional design. Performance is moderate, with no major errors or broken elements detected. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers indicates technical debt in security hardening. The site lacks structured metadata such as Open Graph or JSON-LD schema for enhanced SEO and social sharing. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could be improved with additional security and SEO best practices.
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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