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Security report for pa.sm

Repubblica di San Marino · Government · San Marino

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website pa.sm serves as the official government portal for the Republic of San Marino, providing citizens and businesses with access to public administration services, news, and information. It targets local users and offers key services such as online public services, recruitment notices, and departmental information. The site is branded consistently with government logos and domain usage, reinforcing its official status. Technically, the website employs older but widely used technologies like jQuery 1.12.4 and Bootstrap, with some external libraries loaded from CDNs. However, the site suffers from slow performance with a load time exceeding 12 seconds and lacks modern security configurations. Notably, there is no valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS support, which is a critical security flaw. The absence of security headers and cookie consent mechanisms further weakens its security and privacy posture. From a security perspective, the lack of HTTPS and security headers exposes users to potential risks, and the site does not demonstrate compliance with GDPR or other privacy regulations. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided. WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy and government ownership, supporting the trustworthiness of the site despite technical shortcomings. Overall, while the website fulfills its role as a government information portal with good content quality and professional design, significant improvements in security, privacy compliance, and performance are necessary to enhance user trust and protect sensitive data.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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

7 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 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

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

Keep watching pa.sm

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.

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Recommended

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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
50
Security headers
20
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
55

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 pa.sm domain represents the Republic of San Marino's government digital presence, positioning itself as the authoritative source for public administration services and information. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery. The portal supports citizens and economic actors with online services, public notices, and institutional information. The site does not engage in advertising or commercial partnerships, reflecting its government mandate. Growth indicators are not applicable, but the site maintains consistent branding and content relevance. The partnership ecosystem includes Trend Micro for email security, as indicated by DNS records, but no commercial partners are evident. Strategic observations suggest a need for modernization and enhanced digital security to maintain public trust and comply with evolving regulations.

Security posture

The security posture of the website is currently weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, exposing users to data interception risks. No security headers such as HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, or X-Frame-Options are implemented, increasing vulnerability to common web attacks. The site does not provide any visible incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure policies, limiting transparency and responsiveness to security issues. While DNS records show integration with Trend Micro services, the website itself lacks fundamental security best practices. Compliance with GDPR and other data protection regulations is not evident, and no cookie consent mechanism is present. Immediate remediation is required to secure communications and protect user data.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Implement HTTP security headers including HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and privacy compliance mechanisms to meet GDPR requirements.
  4. Publish clear security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information.
  5. Optimize website performance to reduce load times and improve user experience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses legacy versions of jQuery (1.12.4) and Bootstrap, which may have known vulnerabilities and lack modern features. External scripts are loaded from reputable CDNs. The site lacks a CMS identification but appears custom-built or managed by government IT. Performance is slow with a load time of over 12 seconds and a page size of approximately 90 KB with 38 resources. Mobile optimization is good, with responsive design elements present. SEO is basic with minimal meta descriptions and keywords. Accessibility features are basic, with some ARIA roles and landmarks used. The absence of HTTPS and security headers represents a significant technical risk. Hosting provider details are not disclosed. Modernization opportunities include upgrading libraries, enabling HTTPS, and improving performance metrics.
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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