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Security report for philosophicum.ch

Philosophicum · Education · Switzerland

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Philosophicum is a small, Swiss-based cultural and educational organization focused on philosophy, culture, and societal questions. The website presents a well-structured platform offering event programs, publications, and venue rental services, targeting a general audience interested in philosophical and cultural discourse. The technical infrastructure is modern with use of standard web technologies and a cookie consent mechanism, indicating awareness of privacy requirements. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS implied but lacking explicit security headers and incident response contacts. The absence of privacy and terms of service pages, as well as contact details, represents areas for improvement. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy but could enhance compliance and security transparency.

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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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: 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

  2. 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 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching philosophicum.ch

This scan found 24 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

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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
72
Security headers
45
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
53
Average
54
After the cap
49

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

Philosophicum occupies a niche position in the education sector, providing philosophical and cultural programs primarily in Basel, Switzerland. Its business model appears non-profit or community-oriented, focusing on events, publications, and educational offerings. The organization leverages digital presence to engage its audience with event schedules and thematic content. No evident commercial partnerships or subsidiaries are identified. Growth potential lies in expanding digital engagement and formalizing compliance documentation. The lack of social media or external business partner links suggests a focused but limited digital ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates basic security hygiene with HTTPS usage and a cookie consent mechanism via PrivacyWire. However, it lacks visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options, which are recommended to mitigate common web vulnerabilities. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is provided, limiting transparency for security researchers. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. The security posture is adequate for a small educational site but should be enhanced to meet best practices and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages to improve legal compliance and user trust.
  2. Add explicit security headers to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Provide clear contact information including security incident response contacts to facilitate communication.
  4. Implement a security.txt file to formalize vulnerability disclosure procedures.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and SEO optimization to improve user experience and discoverability.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Philosophicum
Description
Das Philosophicum widmet sich Fragen zu Mensch, Kultur und Wissenschaft. Der thematischen Bandbreite sind keine Grenzen gesetzt. Ein besonderes Augenmerk liegt auf existenziellen, sozialen und spirituellen Erkenntnis- und Lebensfragen der Gegenwart.
Key services
Philosophical programs and events, Publications and texts, Venue rental, Newsletter
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, OwlCarousel 2.3.4, PrivacyWire cookie consent
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by URL)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is in German and focused on philosophy and cultural education.
  3. No explicit privacy or terms of service pages found.
  4. Cookie consent is implemented via PrivacyWire.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  6. Uses OwlCarousel for UI elements and custom fonts hosted on own domain.
  7. No analytics or tracking scripts detected beyond cookie consent.
  8. No social media links or external business partner domains found.
  9. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information present.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and OwlCarousel for UI components. Fonts are self-hosted, and cookie consent is managed by PrivacyWire scripts. The CMS appears to be Kirby based on URL and template structure. Performance is moderate with responsive design for mobile devices. SEO is basic with meta description and keywords present but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. Accessibility is basic with room for improvement. No analytics or tracking services were identified, indicating minimal user tracking.
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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