Skip to main content

Security report for peabody-ma.gov

City of Peabody · Government · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The City of Peabody official website serves as a comprehensive digital portal for municipal services, public information, and community engagement for residents and businesses in Peabody, Massachusetts. It provides access to payments, permits, property searches, city budget details, job openings, trash and recycling information, and official news updates. The site targets local citizens, government employees, and visitors, positioning itself as a trusted source of city governance and services. The business model is that of a government entity focused on transparency, accessibility, and public service delivery. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Bootstrap, jQuery, FontAwesome, and Google Fonts, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. It integrates search functionality and accessibility tools such as ReciteMe. The site is mobile optimized and includes SEO best practices, although some security headers are missing. Analytics are implemented via Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, with moderate user tracking. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and includes an exit modal warning users when navigating to certain external payment or service domains, enhancing user awareness. However, the absence of key security headers and a formal security policy or incident response page indicates room for improvement. WHOIS data is incomplete, but the .gov domain status and consistent official content support legitimacy. Privacy compliance is basic, with no explicit cookie consent mechanism detected. Overall, the website is a well-structured, professional municipal portal with good content quality and user experience. Strategic recommendations include implementing security headers, publishing a security policy, adding cookie consent for GDPR compliance, and maintaining regular security audits to enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

6 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

  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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Cloudflare, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching peabody-ma.gov

This scan found 22 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
57
Security headers
65
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
68

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 City of Peabody website reflects a stable government entity focused on serving its local community through digital means. Its market position is that of a municipal authority providing essential services and information. The site supports transparency with public budget documents, meeting minutes, and alerts. The business model is non-commercial, centered on public service. The presence of partner domains for payments, permits, and records requests indicates a collaborative ecosystem with third-party service providers. The site’s content and structure suggest a medium-sized municipal operation with a focus on accessibility and community engagement. Growth indicators include digital adoption of mobile apps and online services. The partnership ecosystem includes payment processors and government service platforms, enhancing operational efficiency.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and user awareness mechanisms such as exit modals for external links. However, the lack of security headers like Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth posture. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness visibility. Privacy compliance is minimal, lacking cookie consent banners and GDPR indicators. The WHOIS data incompleteness is a minor concern but mitigated by the .gov domain status. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but would benefit from enhanced headers, formal policies, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and update third-party libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
City of Peabody
Description
Official website for the City of Peabody providing municipal information, services, news, and resources for residents and businesses.
Key services
Payments, Permits Online, Property Search, City Budget Information, Local Government Information, Job Openings, Trash & Recycling Information, Meeting Minutes, Alerts and Notifications
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap 5.1.3, jQuery, FontAwesome 6.4.2, Google Fonts, Tipue Search, ReciteMe Accessibility Tool
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Exit modal warning for external links to specific domains
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with required fields and input validation

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via gtag.js)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official municipal government website for City of Peabody, MA
  2. Comprehensive public service information and resources
  3. Multiple PDF documents for transparency and public notices
  4. Social media presence on Facebook and Twitter
  5. Use of modern web technologies and accessibility tools
  6. No detected security headers in HTML source
  7. No explicit privacy or cookie policy pages found, but accessibility statement present
  8. WHOIS data incomplete, but domain is .gov indicating official status
  9. No adult or questionable content detected
  10. Exit modal for external links to specific payment and service domains
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and widely supported technology stack including Bootstrap 5.1.3 for responsive design, jQuery for DOM manipulation, FontAwesome for icons, and Google Fonts for typography. It integrates third-party services such as Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, and ReciteMe for accessibility enhancements. The site is mobile optimized and includes accessibility features such as keyboard focus outlines and ARIA labels. Performance is moderate with some room for optimization. No CMS was detected, suggesting a custom or static site architecture. Hosting provider details are not evident from the HTML. The site uses multiple external resources, which may impact load times but improve functionality. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with opportunities to improve security and privacy features.
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 peabody-ma.gov. 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 peabody-ma.gov.

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.