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Security report for open.nrw

Ministerium fuer Inneres und Kommunales NRW · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Open.NRW is the official Open Government and Open Data portal of the North Rhine-Westphalia state government in Germany. It provides a comprehensive platform for transparency, citizen participation, and access to open datasets from the public sector. The portal targets citizens, municipalities, government agencies, and service providers, offering data, project information, and participation opportunities. Technically, the site is built on Drupal CMS, uses Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics, and implements cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and privacy features, though DNSSEC is not enabled. The domain registration aligns with the official government entity, reinforcing trust and legitimacy. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, good technical implementation, and strong privacy compliance.

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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  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 open.nrw

This scan found 23 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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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
77
Security headers
80
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
68

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention open.nrw, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for open.nrw right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Open.NRW holds a leading position as a government open data platform in NRW, supporting transparency and digital governance. Its business model is public service oriented, focusing on data provision and citizen engagement. The platform supports various sectors including government, environment, transport, and economy. It fosters innovation by enabling data reuse and developer engagement. The portal's partnerships with other government domains and projects enhance its ecosystem. Growth indicators include a large and growing dataset repository and active project showcases. The platform's strategic focus on open government aligns with broader digital transformation initiatives in Germany.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, cookie consent with opt-in, and use of privacy-respecting analytics (Matomo with DoNotTrack). No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Security headers are partially implemented but could be enhanced with explicit CSP and other headers. DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended improvement. No incident response or security policy pages were found, which is common for public government portals but could be improved for transparency. Overall, the site balances usability and security effectively.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and continue monitoring performance for optimal user experience.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministerium fuer Inneres und Kommunales NRW
Description
Das Open.NRW-Portal ist Informations- und zugleich Open Data-Plattform der Landesregierung NRW, die Transparenz und Teilhabe im Open Government fördert. Es bietet offene Daten des öffentlichen Sektors, Beispiele und Informationen zu Projekten sowie Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten.
Key services
Open Data Bereitstellung, Informationen zu Open Government Projekten, Beteiligungsplattformen, Unterstützung und Beratung
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal CMS, jQuery UI, Matomo Analytics, Hyphenopoly (Hyphenation), FontAwesome Icons
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Matomo with DoNotTrack enabled

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-maintained official government open data portal for North Rhine-Westphalia.
  2. Content is comprehensive, up-to-date, and professionally presented.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with opt-in consent.
  4. No signs of suspicious or malicious activity.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations.
Technical notes

Notes

The site is powered by Drupal CMS with modern front-end technologies including jQuery UI and FontAwesome. It uses Matomo analytics configured to respect DoNotTrack signals and includes a cookie consent banner with opt-in mechanism. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting and domain registration are consistent with a government entity. Performance is moderate, with preloading of key images and deferred script loading. The technical stack is well suited for a government open data portal, though some security headers could be improved.
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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