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Security report for nuigalway.ie

University of Galway · Education · Ireland

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

University of Galway is a prestigious Irish higher education institution with a rich history dating back to 1845. It offers a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and research programs, emphasizing sustainable development and community engagement. The university maintains a strong market position as Ireland's top university for sustainability and is recognized internationally for its research excellence. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content targeting prospective and current students, staff, alumni, and researchers. Technically, the website employs a mix of legacy and modern JavaScript libraries, including jQuery, Dojo, and Google Tag Manager, hosted on AWS infrastructure. It demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices. The presence of multiple analytics and marketing tools is managed with user consent mechanisms, reflecting compliance with privacy regulations. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent aligned with GDPR. While explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly available, no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The domain registration details align well with the university's identity, supporting high legitimacy and trustworthiness. Overall, the website is professional, secure, and compliant, serving its educational mission effectively with room for improvement in publishing dedicated security and incident response policies.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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 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';…

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

Keep watching nuigalway.ie

This scan found 21 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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Full report

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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
0
Security headers
30
Email security
80
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
54

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

University of Galway operates as a public university in Ireland, serving a large and diverse student body with over 50 undergraduate and 200 postgraduate courses. Its competitive advantage lies in its sustainability leadership, research output, and community engagement. Revenue streams likely include tuition fees, government funding, research grants, and partnerships. The university targets domestic and international students, researchers, and alumni, supported by a strong digital ecosystem and social media engagement. Strategic partnerships include Irish language initiatives and alumni networks. The institution demonstrates growth through investments in campus infrastructure and digital transformation.

Security posture

The university's website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, cookie consent management, and use of Google Consent Mode. No critical security headers were explicitly detected in the HTML, suggesting potential for enhancement. The absence of a public security policy or vulnerability disclosure program limits transparency. No exposed credentials or vulnerabilities were found in the content. The use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates ongoing monitoring for supply chain risks. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened by publishing formal security and incident response documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Implement and publicize an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy.
  3. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate supply chain risks.
  5. Enhance transparency by providing data retention policies and detailed privacy notices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
University of Galway
Registration number
RCN 20002107
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Galway
Description
University of Galway is a research-led university in Ireland, founded in 1845, offering undergraduate, postgraduate, and research courses with a strong commitment to sustainable development and community engagement.
Key services
Undergraduate courses, Postgraduate taught and research courses, Adult and continuing education, Research and innovation, Community engagement, Alumni services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Dojo Toolkit, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, TikTok Analytics, StackAdapt tracking pixels, jQuery Cycle2 plugin, Fancybox, jCarousel
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Consent Mode for privacy compliance

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, TikTok Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
StackAdapt
Tracking pixels
TikTok Analytics, StackAdapt
Marketing tools
TikTok Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Strong focus on accessibility and user experience.
  3. Comprehensive cookie and privacy consent mechanisms implemented.
  4. Multiple official certifications and awards displayed.
  5. Robust social media presence with verified accounts.
  6. No signs of security issues or content blocking.
  7. Use of multiple analytics and marketing tools with consent management.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of legacy JavaScript libraries (jQuery, Dojo) and modern analytics tools (Google Tag Manager, TikTok Analytics). It is hosted on AWS infrastructure, ensuring scalability and reliability. The site is mobile optimized with good accessibility features and SEO metadata. Some scripts and stylesheets are loaded asynchronously to improve performance. The CMS appears to be T4, a specialized platform for educational institutions. While performance is moderate, there is room for optimization by reducing legacy dependencies and consolidating scripts. The technical stack supports a rich user experience but requires ongoing modernization to maintain security and performance.
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. 56/100 +2Medium27 findingsView report
  2. 54/100Medium29 findingsView report
  3. 54/100Medium29 findingsView report
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