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Security report for patentamt.at

Das Österreichische Patentamt · Government · Austria

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Das Österreichische Patentamt is the central government authority in Austria responsible for intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, and designs. The website serves as an information and service hub offering online filing, advisory services, and educational programs such as the IP Academy. The organization holds ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications, reinforcing its commitment to quality and information security. The site targets a broad audience including inventors, businesses, startups, legal professionals, and students. Technically, the website is built on TYPO3 CMS with modern frontend libraries and frameworks, providing a professional and accessible user experience. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support is a critical security gap that undermines user trust and data protection. Security headers are well implemented but cannot compensate for the lack of encryption. Privacy compliance is strong with comprehensive cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR-aligned policies. Overall, the site is authoritative and trustworthy but requires urgent improvements in SSL/TLS deployment to enhance security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 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. 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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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 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
0
Security headers
50
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
48

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 Austrian Patent Office operates as a government entity providing essential IP services, positioning itself as the authoritative body in Austria for patents, trademarks, and designs. Its business model focuses on regulatory and service provision with additional educational offerings to foster IP awareness. The website reflects a mature digital presence with integrated online services and active social media engagement. Partnerships with platforms like BKMS for legal reporting and internal subdomains for IP management indicate a well-structured ecosystem. The organization’s longevity and certifications contribute to a strong market position. Growth indicators include active event hosting and educational programs targeting diverse user groups. The business maintains transparency and trust through clear contact information and official certifications.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with several best practices such as security headers (X-Content-Type-Options, X-XSS-Protection, HSTS) and cookie management. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS/TLS protocols represent critical vulnerabilities that expose users to data interception and reduce trustworthiness. No known vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or POODLE are detected, but the SSL configuration is insufficient. The site lacks OCSP stapling and session resumption, which could improve security and performance. Incident response and security policy information are not found, indicating potential gaps in transparency and readiness. Overall, the security posture is weak due to missing encryption, requiring immediate remediation.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3 protocols and configure strong cipher suites to secure communications.
  3. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve certificate validation and performance.
  4. Ensure HSTS header is properly configured and enforced to prevent protocol downgrade attacks.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency.
  6. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to avoid vulnerabilities.
  7. Maintain and enhance privacy compliance with clear data retention policies and user controls.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by TYPO3 CMS and uses a variety of modern JavaScript libraries and CSS frameworks including Bootstrap, jQuery, Photoswipe, Owl Carousel, and Parsley.js for form validation. The site is well-structured with responsive design and accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. Performance metrics are not provided but resource counts and page size are zero in the data, indicating incomplete measurement or caching. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified. The site uses Apache server with HTTP headers configured for security and caching control. SEO is supported with meta tags, Open Graph, and Twitter cards. The technical stack is mature but the lack of SSL/TLS is a significant technical debt and risk factor.
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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