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Security report for pa.gov

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · Government · United States

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

Security score

80/100

Risk levelLow

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

The website www.pa.gov serves as the official online portal for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, providing residents and visitors with access to a wide range of government services and resources. It is positioned as the authoritative source for state government information, including services such as REAL ID applications, vehicle registration renewals, SNAP applications, and grant funding searches. The site targets Pennsylvania residents, government service users, and tourists, offering clear navigation and comprehensive content tailored to these audiences. The business model is that of a government service portal, focusing on public service delivery rather than commercial revenue generation. Technically, the site is built on Adobe Experience Manager, leveraging modern technologies such as Coveo for search, Google Tag Manager for analytics, and Google reCAPTCHA for security. The infrastructure demonstrates a mature digital presence with good mobile optimization, accessibility features, and SEO practices. The site integrates multiple third-party services for analytics, feedback, and translation, indicating a well-rounded technical ecosystem. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs security best practices including reCAPTCHA and a published security policy. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the overall posture is strong with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. The WHOIS data is incomplete but consistent with .gov domain privacy norms, and the site includes multiple trust indicators such as official social media links and government branding. Overall, www.pa.gov presents a professional, trustworthy, and secure government website with a strong focus on user accessibility and service delivery. Strategic recommendations include enhancing cookie consent transparency, publishing incident response contacts, and adding a vulnerability disclosure policy to further strengthen trust and 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

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 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 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

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

Keep watching pa.gov

This scan found 17 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
95
Security headers
70
Email security
80
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
80

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

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's official website holds a strong market position as the primary digital gateway for state government services. Its competitive advantage lies in its comprehensive service listings, official status, and integration with multiple government agencies and partners. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on public service and information dissemination. Revenue streams are not applicable, but the site supports government transparency and citizen engagement. Target customers include Pennsylvania residents, businesses, and visitors seeking government services or information. Growth indicators include continuous content updates, integration of modern search and feedback tools, and partnerships with tourism and news organizations. The partnership ecosystem includes domains like visitpa.com and pacast.com, enhancing service breadth and user engagement. Operationally, the site demonstrates a mature digital strategy aligned with government mandates and citizen needs.

Security posture

The security maturity of www.pa.gov is robust, reflecting best practices expected of a government portal. HTTPS is enforced site-wide, and Google reCAPTCHA is used to protect forms from abuse. The presence of a dedicated security policy page indicates organizational commitment to security governance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options were not confirmed and should be verified. The site lacks publicly available incident response contact information and a vulnerability disclosure policy, which are important for transparency and rapid response to security issues. GDPR compliance is limited, likely due to the US government context, but privacy policies are comprehensive. Overall, the site demonstrates a strong security posture with room for improvement in transparency and header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance browser security.
  2. Implement a visible cookie consent banner or mechanism to improve privacy compliance and user awareness.
  3. Add publicly accessible incident response contact information to facilitate security issue reporting.
  4. Develop and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible vulnerability reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Description
We're the home base of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Explore the services and resources offered by your government.
Key services
REAL ID application, Vehicle registration renewal, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program application, Grant funding search, Agency directory, Service listing
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Adobe Experience Manager, Coveo Search, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA, LevelAccess Accessibility JS, Add-to-Calendar Button, Qualtrics Feedback, Google Translate
Frameworks
Adobe Helix RUM
Platforms
Cloud Coveo Platform
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA
  • Security policy page available
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager), Adobe Helix RUM
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Qualtrics Feedback
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Pennsylvania government website with comprehensive service listings
  2. No signs of WAF or content blocking
  3. Uses modern web technologies and accessibility tools
  4. Includes multiple social media official channels
  5. WHOIS data is incomplete but consistent with .gov domain privacy policies
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage
  7. Privacy and security policies are present and accessible
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages Adobe Experience Manager as its CMS, integrating advanced search capabilities via Coveo and analytics through Google Tag Manager and Adobe Helix RUM. The use of Google reCAPTCHA enhances form security. The site is well-structured with responsive design and accessibility considerations, including skip links and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of CDNs for static assets. The technical stack is modern and appropriate for a large government portal, though hosting provider details are not explicit. Opportunities exist to optimize performance further and ensure all security headers are properly configured. The integration of multiple third-party services is well managed, but continuous monitoring is recommended to mitigate supply chain risks.
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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