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Security report for nsopw.gov

Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website · Government · United States

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

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is an official U.S. government resource managed in partnership with the Department of Justice and state, territorial, and tribal governments. It provides nationwide access to sex offender registry data, aiming to enhance public safety and awareness. The website offers search capabilities by name and location, educational resources, and guidance on reporting abuse and obtaining help. The site is clearly targeted at the general public, families, and law enforcement agencies seeking reliable sex offender information. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 with integration of modern web technologies including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and the U.S. Web Design System for accessibility and responsive design. The site demonstrates good performance and mobile optimization, with clear navigation and professional design. Security best practices are observed with HTTPS enforcement and no exposed sensitive data, although some security headers could be explicitly verified and a cookie consent mechanism is absent. From a security and compliance perspective, the site is trustworthy and legitimate, supported by the official .gov domain and Department of Justice branding. WHOIS data is unavailable due to privacy and registry policies for .gov domains, but this is justified given the government nature of the site. No vulnerabilities or malicious content were detected. Privacy compliance could be improved by adding explicit cookie consent and publishing incident response or vulnerability disclosure information. Overall, NSOPW is a well-maintained, authoritative government website providing critical public safety information. Strategic recommendations include enhancing privacy compliance with cookie consent, publishing security policies and incident contacts, and verifying security headers to further strengthen the security posture.

Scanned

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. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 29 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

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

Keep watching nsopw.gov

This scan found 16 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.

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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
65
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
79

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

NSOPW occupies a unique and essential position as the official national sex offender public website in the United States. Its competitive advantage lies in its government backing, comprehensive aggregation of sex offender data from all states, territories, and tribal jurisdictions, and its focus on public safety and education. The business model is non-commercial, funded and operated by the U.S. Department of Justice, serving the public interest. The target customers include citizens, families, law enforcement, and social service agencies. Growth indicators include high search volumes and ongoing partnerships with jurisdictions nationwide. The ecosystem includes related DOJ programs such as SMART, Amber Alert, and Crime Victims services, indicating a broad government safety network. Operationally, the site is stable and professionally managed with consistent branding and content quality.

Security posture

The security maturity of NSOPW is solid, reflecting typical government standards. HTTPS is enforced site-wide, and no sensitive data leakage or vulnerable scripts were detected. The site uses modern frameworks and libraries with no known vulnerabilities. However, explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options were not visible in the HTML source and should be confirmed at the server level. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a minor compliance gap. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure information are not publicly available, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. Overall, the site demonstrates a strong security culture appropriate for a government public safety resource.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and display a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations.
  2. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  3. Add explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options if not already configured.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information for security issues.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website
Description
The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is a public safety resource providing access to sex offender data nationwide. It is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and state, territorial, and tribal governments.
Key services
Search sex offender registries nationwide, Safety and education resources, Information on how to report abuse and get help
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, jQuery, Google Custom Search Engine, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, DataTables, US Web Design System (USWDS)
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, USWDS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with input validation scripts
  • Official .gov domain indicating government hosting and controls

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Marketing tools
Google Custom Search Engine
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government .gov domain
  2. Clear government branding and disclaimers
  3. Comprehensive sex offender registry search functionality
  4. Good accessibility and mobile optimization
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected
  7. Lack of explicit cookie consent mechanism
  8. WHOIS data unavailable due to .gov domain privacy and registry policies
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging USWDS for design consistency and accessibility. It integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, and uses DataTables for tabular data presentation. The site loads with moderate performance, is mobile optimized, and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, with no deprecated or vulnerable libraries detected. Opportunities exist to improve performance further by optimizing third-party scripts and implementing caching strategies. The lack of visible hosting provider information suggests government hosting infrastructure, which typically provides robust security and uptime.
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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