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Security report for portofoostende.be

Port Oostende · Energy · Belgium

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Port Oostende operates as a maritime port authority and service provider specializing in niche markets within the blue economy, including offshore wind energy, aquaculture, and circular industry. The website reflects a medium-sized, professional organization with a clear focus on sustainable maritime economic growth and business facilitation. Their market position is strong within the Flanders coastal region, supported by specialized terminals and services. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern front-end technologies, providing good mobile optimization and accessibility. Security posture is moderate, with room for improvement in security headers and public security policies. Privacy compliance is well addressed with cookie consent mechanisms and clear privacy and cookie policies. The lack of WHOIS data transparency is a moderate concern but does not detract significantly from the overall legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing incident response policies, and improving domain registration transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

5 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
    • 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 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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  4. Network security

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

    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • 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 portofoostende.be

This scan found 25 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.

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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
40
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
68
Average
56

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

Port Oostende targets maritime industry stakeholders, research entities, and businesses involved in blue economy sectors. Their business model centers on port management and specialized services such as heavy weight terminals, technical customization, and stevedoring. The company leverages partnerships and EU projects to strengthen its market presence. The website content and structure indicate a professional and consistent branding approach with trust signals like testimonials and news updates. The presence of dedicated job and charity event portals suggests active community and workforce engagement. Overall, the business intelligence points to a stable, regionally significant maritime hub with growth potential in sustainable maritime sectors.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is implied but not explicitly confirmed in the HTML content. Security headers are absent or not visible, which is a gap. The site uses cookie consent compliant with EU GDPR requirements, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which limits transparency. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and AddToAny requires ongoing monitoring for security risks. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a public-facing informational site but could be improved with enhanced headers, published security policies, and incident response readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  3. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and dependencies.
  4. Improve WHOIS transparency or provide domain registration details on the site to enhance trust.
  5. Enhance contact information with verified company emails and phone numbers for better user trust and support.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Port Oostende
Description
Port Oostende is a maritime port specializing in niche markets within the blue economy, focusing on sustainable economic maritime growth, including offshore wind energy, aquaculture, circular industry, and various maritime connections such as roll-on roll-off and bulk cargo.
Key services
Heavy weight terminal services, Technical customization, Stevedoring services, Roll-on roll-off and cruise berths, Support for offshore wind energy and aquaculture
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, AddToAny sharing, Flickity carousel
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Cookie consent banner with categories
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. Uses Drupal 10 CMS with modern front-end libraries
  3. Includes cookie consent compliant with EU regulations
  4. No visible security headers in HTML source; recommend header audit
  5. WHOIS data is restricted and unavailable, limiting domain trust verification
  6. Social media presence is active on major platforms
  7. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on homepage; contact form present
  8. No terms of service or explicit security policy pages found
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as Flickity for carousels and AddToAny for social sharing. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and tracking. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and accessibility features like skip links and ARIA labels. Performance appears moderate with deferred script loading and lazy loading images. SEO is supported by canonical links, hreflang tags, and meta viewport settings. However, the absence of visible security headers and incomplete WHOIS data represent technical risks. Hosting provider details are not discernible from the HTML content. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and functional but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and transparency.
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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