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Security report for orcid.org

ORCID · Technology · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

ORCID is a well-established non-profit organization founded in 2009 that provides unique digital identifiers for researchers to connect their professional activities and outputs. The website reflects a professional and academic focus, targeting researchers, academic institutions, publishers, and funders globally. It serves as a critical infrastructure in the research ecosystem, facilitating interoperability and data linking. Technically, the website employs modern JavaScript frameworks, uses Cloudflare for DNS and likely CDN services, and integrates advanced monitoring tools such as New Relic and Google Tag Manager, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. The site is performant, mobile-optimized, and maintains consistent branding and content quality. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS, uses clientTransferProhibited domain status, and leverages Cloudflare DNS, but lacks DNSSEC and explicit security policies visible in the content. Privacy compliance is limited by the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy and legitimate with room for improvement in privacy transparency and DNS security.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

3 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 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 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

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

Keep watching orcid.org

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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
90
Security headers
35
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
77

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 orcid.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
248,195
Employees
10
Customers
248,147
Third parties
38
Weak passwords
8%

Latest record dated 2026-06-12 · 16 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for orcid.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –orcid.org2026-06-12
  • –orcid.org2026-05-20
  • –orcid.org2026-03-15
  • –orcid.org2025-10-31
  • –orcid.org2025-08-18

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)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

ORCID holds a strong market position as the leading provider of researcher identifiers, serving a global academic and research audience. Its business model as a non-profit focuses on providing essential infrastructure services rather than commercial revenue streams. The organization benefits from partnerships with academic institutions and publishers, although no explicit partner domains were identified in the content. The website content and structure support its mission effectively, with good design and navigation. Growth indicators include the domain's longevity and integration with major research workflows. Strategic observations suggest enhancing privacy disclosures and expanding contact information to improve stakeholder trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with HTTPS enforcement, reputable domain registration, and use of Cloudflare DNS services. The clientTransferProhibited status adds protection against unauthorized domain transfers. However, the lack of DNSSEC reduces DNS security robustness. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, which could hinder transparency and readiness. The use of third-party analytics and monitoring scripts is standard but requires ongoing auditing to prevent vulnerabilities. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by publishing security policies and enabling DNSSEC.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  3. Add explicit security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and SEO optimization to improve user experience and discoverability.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ORCID
Description
ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers and connects their professional activities and outputs.
Key services
Researcher unique identifiers (ORCID iDs), Integration with research workflows, Data linking and interoperability
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, New Relic Browser monitoring, Cloudflare DNS
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, New Relic Browser
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic Browser
Transparency
basic

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. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided HTML content.
  3. Use of modern monitoring and analytics tools (New Relic, Google Tag Manager).
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  5. No forms detected in the provided HTML snippet.
  6. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  7. Strong domain registration and DNS configuration.
  8. No suspicious or malicious indicators detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript framework (likely Angular) with a base href indicating SPA architecture. It integrates New Relic Browser monitoring and Google Tag Manager for analytics and performance tracking. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The site loads quickly and is mobile-optimized, though accessibility features are basic. No CMS was detected, suggesting a custom or framework-based build. The technical stack is mature and well-maintained, with opportunities to improve DNS security and privacy compliance. No technical debt or deprecated technologies were observed.
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. 77/100Low25 findingsView report
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