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Security report for peer.eu

Partnership for European Environmental Research · Other · N/a

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Network security and 1 other check.

Security score

47/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The website peer.eu represents the Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER), a collaborative network focused on environmental research and sustainable development. The site targets researchers and policymakers, providing information on research projects, publications, and strategic research areas. The business model centers on knowledge sharing and policy support within the environmental research sector. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS with a professional design and structured content, but suffers from moderate performance and lacks a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical security flaw. The security posture is weak due to the absence of HTTPS, security headers, and modern TLS protocols. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism. Contact information is limited to a contact form, with no direct emails or phone numbers provided. Overall, the site is credible but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and enhance trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

8 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

    • 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. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: SMB

      Port 445 (SMB) is publicly accessible - SMB - Windows file sharing, high risk

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to SMB using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection
    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

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

Keep watching peer.eu

This scan found 23 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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  • 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
95
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
18
Average
47

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 · found on this site
  • 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

PEER operates as a medium-sized European environmental research network, collaborating across multiple research centers and institutions. The organization focuses on strategic research areas such as biodiversity, climate action, and urban sustainability. The website reflects a strong partnership ecosystem with links to various research centers and projects. The business model is non-commercial, emphasizing research collaboration and policy influence. Growth indicators include active news updates and project dissemination. The site’s partnership with reputable research institutions enhances its market position. However, the lack of direct contact details and security certifications may limit trust among some stakeholders.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. No security headers or advanced TLS protocols are implemented, and session security features are missing. The site does not provide explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which limits transparency and readiness for security incidents. Privacy practices are adequate with GDPR-compliant policies and cookie consent, but the critical lack of HTTPS significantly undermines overall security. 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 modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3) and disable insecure protocols.
  3. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve security and performance.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on TYPO3 CMS, a mature and extensible content management system, with use of FontAwesome for icons and standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript). The site is hosted on servers managed by kasserver.com. Performance is moderate with a page load time of approximately 6.3 seconds and 46 resource requests, indicating room for optimization. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, with responsive design and ARIA attributes present. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured data using schema.org JSON-LD for news articles and videos. However, the lack of HTTPS and modern security configurations represents a significant technical risk. Modernization opportunities include improving SSL/TLS setup, optimizing resource loading, and enhancing security headers.
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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