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Security report for pmri.org

Dean Ornish MD · Healthcare · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Preventive Medicine Research Institute (pmri.org) is a non-profit organization led by Dean Ornish MD, specializing in lifestyle medicine research with over 45 years of pioneering studies focused on chronic diseases such as heart disease and Alzheimer's. The website reflects a well-established research entity collaborating with prestigious academic institutions, offering scientific evidence and educational resources. Technically, the site employs modern frameworks like Next.js and integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking, hosted with Cloudflare DNS services. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and domain transfer protections, but lacks advanced security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies, indicating room for compliance improvement. Overall, the domain registration data aligns well with the business claims, supporting high legitimacy and trustworthiness.

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

7 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching pmri.org

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.

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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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 pmri.org, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for pmri.org right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

PMRI holds a strong market position as a specialized healthcare non-profit focused on lifestyle medicine research. Its competitive advantage lies in its long history of peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials and collaborations with top-tier academic institutions. The business model centers on research and education rather than commercial sales. Target customers include patients, healthcare providers, and researchers interested in preventive medicine. The partnership with ornish.com suggests a broader ecosystem supporting lifestyle medicine programs. Growth indicators include sustained research output and educational content. Strategic observations highlight the importance of enhancing privacy compliance and security transparency to maintain trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and domain transfer lock in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC, security headers, and published security or incident response policies reveals compliance gaps. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The use of third-party analytics introduces moderate user tracking, but no explicit cookie consent mechanisms were found, which may conflict with GDPR requirements. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure processes are not publicly documented, limiting transparency. Overall, the security posture is functional but could benefit from enhancements in policy publication and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR-compliant consent mechanisms
  3. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options
  4. Establish and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact information
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve transparency
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Dean Ornish MD
Description
Dean Ornish, M.D., and colleagues at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute conduct peer-reviewed randomized trials to prevent and reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease and early-stage Alzheimer's disease. The lifestyle medicine program is described in the book UnDo It.
Key services
Lifestyle medicine research, Clinical trials, Educational resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Next.js, React, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, jQuery, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed with clear navigation and relevant content
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found, indicating compliance gaps
  3. No visible security policy or incident response information
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and long-standing business presence
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern React/Next.js framework, ensuring good performance and mobile responsiveness. Hosting utilizes Cloudflare DNS, providing reliable domain resolution. The site uses Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for user tracking and marketing insights. While the technical implementation is solid, the lack of DNSSEC and security headers indicates some technical debt in security hardening. Accessibility features appear basic but functional. SEO optimization is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in loading speed and accessibility compliance.
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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