Skip to main content

Security report for pbs.gov.au

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing · Healthcare · Australia

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) website is an official Australian government platform managed by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. It provides comprehensive information about medicines subsidised by the government, targeting consumers, carers, health professionals, and the pharmaceutical industry. The site serves as a key resource for PBS news, medicine listings, and regulatory information, positioning itself as a trusted authoritative source in the healthcare sector within Australia. Technically, the website employs a mature but somewhat dated technology stack including jQuery 1.11.1, Bootstrap 2.3.2, and Font Awesome 3.2.1. It integrates Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for user tracking and analytics. The site is mobile responsive at a basic level and demonstrates good accessibility and SEO practices, though there is room for modernization and enhanced performance optimization. From a security perspective, the site benefits from HTTPS encryption and secure form handling but lacks explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy and HSTS. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is partially met with a clear privacy policy linked to the parent government health site, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a minor gap. WHOIS data is privacy protected but consistent with government domain norms, supporting the legitimacy of the domain. Overall, the PBS website exhibits a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and content quality suitable for its essential government healthcare function. Strategic improvements in security headers, cookie consent, and technology modernization would further enhance its security posture and user trust.

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. 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

  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.

    • 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 pbs.gov.au

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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
82
Security headers
75
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
79

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

PBS operates as a government essential service providing subsidised pharmaceutical information and regulatory guidance. Its market position is strong as the official source for PBS-related data in Australia, serving multiple stakeholders including consumers, healthcare professionals, and industry participants. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and regulatory compliance. Revenue streams are government-funded. The site supports growth through subscription services for news updates and maintains partnerships with related government health portals. The ecosystem includes links to advisory committees and industry resources, reinforcing its authoritative role.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and secure form submissions. However, it lacks several modern security headers that could mitigate risks such as clickjacking and cross-site scripting. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. Privacy compliance is partial, with a comprehensive privacy policy but no cookie consent mechanism. The use of older JavaScript libraries may pose potential risks if not regularly audited. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from enhancements in headers, transparency, and cookie management.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy best practices and regulations.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve incident response transparency.
  4. Upgrade JavaScript libraries and frameworks to supported, secure versions to reduce risk of vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance mobile optimization and performance for better user experience across devices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Description
This website contains information on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme including details of the medicines subsidised by the Australian Government as well as information for consumers, carers, health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry. The PBS is part of Australia’s broader National Medicines Policy.
Key services
Information on PBS medicines, PBS News updates, Medicine search, Subscription to PBS news, Guidance for health professionals and industry
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.11.1, jQuery UI 1.11.0, Bootstrap 2.3.2, Font Awesome 3.2.1, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official Australian government site for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
  2. Content is comprehensive, well-structured, and professionally presented.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banner detected, which could be improved.
  5. WHOIS data is privacy protected but consistent with government domain norms.
  6. Uses older versions of jQuery and Bootstrap but no known vulnerabilities detected in the content.
  7. Includes Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking with moderate user tracking level.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a legacy technology stack with jQuery 1.11.1 and Bootstrap 2.3.2, which are functional but outdated. The site is built with standard HTML5 and CSS, with some conditional comments for older IE versions. Google Analytics and Tag Manager are integrated for analytics. Performance is moderate with basic mobile responsiveness. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are present, indicating good compliance. There is no detected CMS or hosting provider information. The site could benefit from modernization to improve speed, security, and maintainability.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with pbs.gov.au. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review pbs.gov.au.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.