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Security report for phst.at

Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark · Education · Austria

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 2 other checks.

Security score

30/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark is a regional higher education institution in Austria specializing in teacher education and professional development. The website provides comprehensive information about degree programs, continuing education, research activities, and international partnerships, targeting students and educators in the education sector. The institution maintains a consistent and professional online presence with clear navigation and relevant content. Technically, the website is built on the TYPO3 CMS platform, utilizing modern frontend libraries such as jQuery, Bootstrap, and Swiper.js. It integrates Matomo analytics for user tracking and demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices. However, performance metrics are unavailable, limiting a full assessment. From a security perspective, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support HTTPS, which is a critical vulnerability. Security headers are minimal, and no advanced security policies like HSTS or CSP are implemented. Privacy compliance is strong, with a clear GDPR-compliant privacy policy and an active cookie consent mechanism. Overall, while the website is content-rich and professionally maintained, the absence of HTTPS significantly impacts its security posture and trustworthiness. Addressing this critical issue should be a top priority to protect user data and enhance credibility.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of phst.at. View the latest report

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

9 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 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

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

Keep watching phst.at

This scan found 20 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
0
Security headers
25
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
0
Average
30

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention phst.at, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
98
Employees
0
Customers
46
Third parties
52
Weak passwords
5%

2 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for phst.at.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark operates as a public educational institution focused on teacher training and continuing education within Austria. Its market position is that of a specialized regional university-level institution serving the Steiermark region. The business model centers on providing accredited degree programs, professional development courses, and research support. The institution leverages partnerships with various educational and research organizations, as evidenced by linked domains and international mobility programs. The website content and structure indicate a mature organization with a stable target audience of students and educators. Growth indicators include active news updates and international collaborations. The presence on multiple social media platforms supports outreach and community engagement.

Security posture

The current security posture of the website is weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. Security headers are limited to basic protections like X-Content-Type-Options and X-UA-Compatible, with no implementation of advanced headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Referrer-Policy. Vulnerabilities include no HSTS, no TLS support, and no session resumption mechanisms. The site does not expose sensitive data or show signs of vulnerable libraries, but the missing HTTPS is a critical flaw. Privacy compliance is well addressed with GDPR-aligned policies and cookie consent. Incident response and security policy documentation are not found, indicating potential gaps in security governance. Overall, the site requires urgent improvements in transport security and header policies to meet modern security standards.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable legacy protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Add comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Referrer-Policy, and X-Frame-Options.
  5. Establish and publish a security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  6. Enhance accessibility features and conduct performance optimization to improve user experience.
  7. Maintain and update third-party libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  8. Continue GDPR compliance efforts with clear data retention policies and user rights information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is hosted on an Apache server and built using TYPO3 CMS, a robust and widely used content management system. Frontend technologies include jQuery, Bootstrap for responsive design, and Swiper.js for interactive sliders. The site uses compressed CSS and JavaScript assets to optimize load times, although explicit performance metrics are not available. Matomo analytics is integrated for privacy-conscious user tracking. The DNS setup includes Microsoft Exchange for mail services and multiple authoritative name servers, including university-affiliated ones. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS support is a significant technical deficiency. The site is well-structured with semantic HTML and meta tags supporting SEO and accessibility, but improvements in security and performance monitoring are recommended.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 48/100High35 findingsView report
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