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Security report for nsw.gov.au

NSW Government · Government · Australia

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

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

The NSW Government website serves as the official digital portal for the New South Wales state government, providing residents and visitors with access to a wide range of public services, information, and engagement opportunities. The site is well-branded with consistent use of official logos and metadata, targeting a broad audience including residents, businesses, and tourists. The business model is that of a government service provider, focusing on transparency, accessibility, and public engagement. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 and leverages modern analytics and marketing tools such as Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, and Adobe Launch, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. Hosting appears to be on Amazon AWS, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain registration consistent with official government entities, although DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not explicitly detected in the provided data. Privacy compliance is limited by the absence of explicit privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms in the analyzed content. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-positioned as a government resource, but could improve transparency and compliance regarding privacy and security disclosures.

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 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

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching nsw.gov.au

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
82
Security headers
65
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
78

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 NSW Government website holds a strong market position as the primary official portal for state government services and information. Its competitive advantage lies in its authoritative content, comprehensive service coverage, and integration with related government domains such as account.service.nsw.gov.au. The business model is service-oriented, funded by government resources, with a focus on public accessibility and engagement. The target customer segments include residents, businesses, and visitors to New South Wales. The site demonstrates growth indicators through active event promotion and community engagement features. The partnership ecosystem includes related government service domains and third-party analytics providers. Strategic observations highlight the need for enhanced privacy and security policy transparency to align with evolving compliance standards.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain registration managed by the Department of Finance - NSW, including domain status flags that prevent unauthorized changes. However, the lack of DNSSEC implementation and absence of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security represent areas for improvement. No explicit security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms were found, which could impact incident handling and transparency. The extensive use of third-party analytics and tracking scripts necessitates careful privacy management. Overall, the site is secure for general use but would benefit from enhanced security disclosures and technical hardening.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to enhance GDPR and privacy compliance.
  3. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Establish and publicize a security policy including incident response contacts and vulnerability disclosure procedures.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
NSW Government
Description
Official website providing information, access to services, and public engagement for the New South Wales government.
Key services
Information about living in NSW, Working and business resources, Community services, Events and cultural information, Access to government departments and agencies
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Adobe Launch, Google Translate
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of serverDeleteProhibited, serverRenewProhibited, serverTransferProhibited domain status flags

Analytics and tracking

Services
Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Adobe Launch
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics (via GTM), Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Adobe Launch
Marketing tools
Adobe Launch
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official government website for New South Wales, Australia
  2. Uses Drupal 10 CMS with modern web technologies
  3. Includes multiple analytics and tracking tools for user behavior analysis
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie policy detected in the provided content
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found
  7. Domain registration is consistent with the official government entity
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected
  9. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, indicating a modern and supported content management platform. It uses a variety of analytics and marketing technologies including Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and Adobe Launch, reflecting a sophisticated approach to user behavior analysis and marketing. Hosting is via Amazon AWS DNS infrastructure, suggesting reliable and scalable hosting. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility features, with structured metadata and JSON-LD for SEO. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Technical risks include the absence of DNSSEC and incomplete security header implementation, which could be addressed to improve overall security posture.
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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