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Security report for oceanexpert.org

UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE · Government · Belgium

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

OceanExpert is a specialized directory platform operated by the UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE, providing a comprehensive listing of marine and freshwater professionals, institutes, groups, events, and documents. The platform serves a niche audience of researchers and organizations involved in oceanographic and aquatic sciences, positioning itself as an authoritative resource within this scientific community. The business model is non-commercial, supported by a government/non-profit entity based in Belgium, with a domain established since 2002, indicating a mature and stable presence. Technically, the website employs a modern tech stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, FontAwesome, and Leaflet for interactive mapping, alongside Google Analytics and reCAPTCHA for analytics and security. The site demonstrates moderate performance and basic mobile optimization, with room for improvement in accessibility and SEO. The infrastructure is custom-built without a known CMS, hosted under the registrar Gandi SAS. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and implements CSRF tokens and reCAPTCHA on login forms, reflecting good security practices. However, the absence of DNSSEC, lack of security headers, and missing cookie consent mechanisms highlight areas for enhancement. No critical vulnerabilities or malicious indicators were found, and the domain registration details align well with the organization's profile, supporting legitimacy. Overall, OceanExpert presents a professional, trustworthy, and content-rich platform with a solid business foundation. Strategic improvements in privacy compliance, security headers, and mobile accessibility would further strengthen its security posture and user trust.

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

8 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 oceanexpert.org

This scan found 25 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

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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
60

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

OceanExpert operates as a government/non-profit directory service under UNESCO/IOC, targeting marine and freshwater scientific communities globally. Its competitive advantage lies in its authoritative backing and specialized focus on oceanographic expertise. The platform's revenue model is likely grant or government-funded rather than commercial. Key customer segments include researchers, institutes, and policy makers in marine sciences. The partnership ecosystem includes social media channels and integration with global oceanographic initiatives. Growth indicators include a long-standing domain and continuous content updates. Strategic observations suggest leveraging enhanced digital marketing and compliance to expand reach and trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforcement, CSRF protection, and reCAPTCHA integration. However, the lack of DNSSEC, absence of security headers like Content-Security-Policy, and missing published security policies or incident response contacts indicate gaps in comprehensive security management. These gaps could expose the platform to DNS spoofing or clickjacking risks. Compliance with GDPR is partial due to missing cookie consent mechanisms. The platform shows readiness for incident response through login protections but lacks explicit communication channels for security incidents. Overall, the security posture is adequate but requires enhancements to meet higher standards.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to secure DNS queries and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and privacy policy updates to ensure GDPR compliance.
  4. Improve mobile responsiveness and accessibility features to enhance user experience.
  5. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to build trust and readiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE
Description
OceanExpert is a directory platform providing information about marine and freshwater professionals, institutes, groups, events, and documents related to oceanographic research and expertise.
Key services
Expert directory, Institute directory, Event calendar, Document repository, Advanced search capabilities
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, FontAwesome, Leaflet, Esri Leaflet, Google Analytics, reCAPTCHA
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • CSRF token in login form
  • Use of reCAPTCHA
  • Password input fields with proper types
  • Login form with remember me checkbox

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional directory for marine and freshwater experts and institutes.
  2. Operated by UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE based in Belgium.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. Uses modern mapping technologies (Leaflet, Esri Leaflet) for geospatial data visualization.
  5. Includes login and registration forms with CSRF protection and reCAPTCHA.
  6. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners found, which may affect GDPR compliance.
  7. Social media presence on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter (X), and YouTube.
  8. No visible security headers or advanced security policies published.
  9. Domain registration is stable and consistent with the organization's profile.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom-built platform leveraging popular JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery and Bootstrap, combined with Leaflet and Esri Leaflet for interactive mapping. The integration of Google Analytics and reCAPTCHA indicates attention to analytics and security. Performance is moderate with potential for optimization, especially in mobile responsiveness and accessibility. The absence of a known CMS suggests bespoke development, which may require dedicated maintenance resources. Technical risks include missing DNSSEC and security headers, which should be addressed to reduce attack surface and improve compliance.
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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