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Security report for open-access-berlin.de

Open Research Office Berlin · Government · Germany

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

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Open Research Office Berlin operates as a coordination and support entity for open science initiatives in Berlin, hosted by the Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin and supported by the Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Gesundheit und Pflege. It focuses on promoting open access, providing information, advice, and networking opportunities to scientific and cultural heritage institutions in Berlin. The website reflects a well-structured public service organization with a clear mission and target audience in the academic and governmental sectors. Technically, the website is built on a modern CMS platform (Infopark CMS Fiona) with Ruby on Rails integration, employing standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and jQuery. The site is mobile-optimized, SEO-friendly, and performs moderately well. Hosting appears to be managed by institutional providers linked to the Freie Universität Berlin and DFN, ensuring reliability. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with proper CSRF protections but lacks explicit security headers and a cookie consent mechanism, which are recommended for enhanced security and compliance. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is supported by a privacy policy, though cookie consent is missing. Contact information is primarily via a contact form, with no direct emails or phone numbers displayed. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and serves its public mission effectively. Strategic improvements in security headers, cookie consent, and incident response disclosures would further strengthen its posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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';…

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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
57
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

Open Research Office Berlin holds a unique position as a government-supported coordination office for open science in Berlin, leveraging partnerships with academic institutions and public administration. Its business model is non-commercial, focusing on public service and policy implementation. The organization benefits from strong institutional backing and a clear mandate, targeting researchers, academic institutions, and cultural heritage organizations. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status and integration within Berlin's scientific ecosystem. Growth indicators include active projects, research, and community engagement through blogs and events. The partnership ecosystem includes the Freie Universität Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, and other Berlin-based research entities.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and CSRF tokens implemented. However, the absence of key security headers (e.g., Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options) and lack of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file indicate room for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. The site lacks explicit incident response contact channels, which could hinder timely reporting and mitigation of security incidents. GDPR compliance is partially addressed through a privacy policy but lacks cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a public information site but should be enhanced to meet best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and/or security.txt file to facilitate responsible security reporting.
  4. Provide explicit incident response contact information to improve security incident handling and trust.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to prevent vulnerabilities and maintain security hygiene.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Open Research Office Berlin
Description
Das Open Research Office Berlin ist eine Koordinierungsstelle für offene Wissenschaft in Berlin, angesiedelt an der Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin. Es unterstützt Berliner Wissenschafts- und Kulturerbe-Einrichtungen bei der Umsetzung von Open Access und Open Research Zielen, informiert, berät und vernetzt zu offenen Wissenschaftsthemen, erhebt Bedarfe, beobachtet Entwicklungen und forscht zu Herausforderungen der Open-Access-Transformation.
Key services
Information und Beratung zu offener Wissenschaft, Vernetzung von Akteuren, Bedarfsanalyse im Forschungsraum Berlin, Beobachtung und Analyse der Open-Access-Transformation, Forschung zu Herausforderungen im Open Research
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, FontAwesome, Rails Connector for Infopark CMS Fiona
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (implied by Rails Connector), Infopark CMS Fiona
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • CSRF tokens present in meta tags
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is primarily in German with an English version available.
  3. Focus on open research coordination and support in Berlin.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners detected, but privacy policy is present.
  5. No visible phone numbers or email addresses on the main page; contact form is available.
  6. No terms of service page found.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  8. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
  9. Use of modern CMS and web technologies with good SEO and accessibility basics.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a robust CMS platform (Infopark CMS Fiona) integrated with Ruby on Rails, using modern web standards and libraries such as jQuery and FontAwesome. The site is responsive and optimized for mobile devices, with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting is institutional, likely ensuring stable uptime and security. Performance is moderate, with no major issues detected. Accessibility features are basic but present. The technical stack is well-suited for the organization's needs, though modernization opportunities exist in adopting more advanced security headers and privacy tools.
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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