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Security report for offenedaten-koeln.de

Stadt Köln · Government · Germany

Partial score · DNS & email only

74/100

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

Offene Daten Köln is the official open data portal of the City of Cologne, Germany, providing public access to a wide range of municipal datasets to promote transparency and digital engagement. The portal is built on the Drupal 7 CMS with the DKAN open data platform, offering datasets in formats such as CSV, ZIP, WFS, and WMS. The site targets citizens, developers, researchers, and businesses interested in municipal data. It features search functionality, a blog, and user login capabilities. Technically, the website uses a mature but outdated technology stack including Drupal 7 and jQuery 3.1, hosted likely by NetCologne, with Matomo analytics hosted on a city domain to ensure privacy-conscious tracking. The site is mobile optimized with good navigation and consistent branding. However, the use of Drupal 7, which is end-of-life, presents security risks that should be addressed. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses secure forms, but lacks modern security headers and published security or incident response policies. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy and cookie policy present but no explicit cookie consent mechanism. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional, serving as a valuable government resource. Strategic improvements include upgrading the CMS, enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent, and publishing security policies to strengthen compliance and security posture.

Scanned

3 of 7 checks could not complete. The site may be unreachable or blocking automated scans, so the results below cover only what could be checked. Try a rescan later.

NIS2 and GDPR posture

NIS2 outside view
Not assessed
GDPR outside view
Not assessed

Both readouts depend on the site's pages, which could not be loaded in this scan.

Priority findings

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

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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
67
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
Average
74

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • GDPR outside view: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 portal is positioned as a municipal open data service, leveraging the DKAN platform to provide structured data access. Its business model is service-oriented, focusing on transparency and civic engagement rather than revenue generation. The target audience includes local citizens, developers, and researchers. The site benefits from official city branding and partnerships with NuCivic for DKAN technology. Growth indicators include regular dataset updates and blog posts. The partnership ecosystem is limited but includes technology providers like NuCivic. The portal's operations reflect a medium-sized government digital service with consistent content quality and trust signals.

Security posture

The current security maturity is moderate. HTTPS is enforced, and no sensitive data is exposed in the HTML. However, the use of Drupal 7 and older JavaScript libraries introduces potential vulnerabilities. The absence of security headers and published incident response policies indicates gaps in security best practices. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking cookie consent mechanisms. The site uses Matomo analytics hosted internally, which is positive for privacy. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government portal but requires modernization and policy enhancements to mitigate risks and comply fully with GDPR and NIS2 requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Upgrade the CMS from Drupal 7 to a supported version to address security vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement modern security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Add an explicit cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR requirements.
  4. Publish comprehensive security and incident response policies accessible on the website.
  5. Regularly update JavaScript libraries and dependencies to latest secure versions.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stadt Köln
Description
Offene Daten Köln ist ein Open Data Portal der Stadt Köln, das offene Datensätze aus verschiedenen Bereichen der Stadtverwaltung bereitstellt, um Transparenz und digitale Teilhabe zu fördern.
Key services
Bereitstellung offener Datensätze, Suchfunktion für Datensätze, Blog und Informationsangebote, API-Zugriff auf Daten
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 7, jQuery 3.1, Bootstrap, DKAN, Recline.js, Piwik (Matomo) Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal, DKAN
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with CSRF tokens (Drupal standard)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik (Matomo)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik (Matomo)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official city government open data portal for Cologne.
  2. Uses Drupal 7 and DKAN platform for open data management.
  3. Provides datasets in multiple formats including CSV, ZIP, WFS, WMS.
  4. Includes blog and user login functionality.
  5. No direct email or phone contact found on main page; contact via form.
  6. Privacy and cookie policies present but no explicit cookie consent banner.
  7. Uses Matomo analytics hosted on city domain, indicating privacy-conscious analytics.
  8. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure found.
  9. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  10. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website runs on Drupal 7 with DKAN, using jQuery 3.1 and Bootstrap for frontend components. It integrates Matomo analytics hosted on a city domain, enhancing privacy. The site is mobile optimized and has good navigation and branding consistency. Hosting appears to be with NetCologne, inferred from nameservers. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement by updating technology stack and optimizing assets. The site lacks modern security headers and uses some legacy libraries, indicating technical debt. Overall, the infrastructure is stable but requires modernization to improve 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

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