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Security report for protectedplanet.net

UNEP-WCMC and IUCN · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Email security, SSL/TLS and 2 other checks.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Protected Planet is a globally recognized platform managed by UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, providing comprehensive and up-to-date data on protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. The website serves governments, NGOs, landowners, and communities by aggregating and disseminating critical conservation data, supported by an API and regular updates. Its market position is strong as a leading global resource in environmental conservation data. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Ruby on Rails, Mapbox GL JS for mapping, and analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar. The site is mobile-optimized with good SEO and accessibility basics, though some improvements could be made in accessibility and performance tuning. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses Content Security Policy, and includes CSRF tokens, reflecting a solid security posture. However, it lacks some recommended security headers and does not publicly disclose security policies or incident response contacts, which could be improved to enhance trust and compliance. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich with a high level of business credibility. The main risks relate to privacy compliance gaps and limited contact information. Strategic recommendations include publishing comprehensive privacy and security policies, expanding contact options, and enhancing security headers to further strengthen the security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  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.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

  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 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';…

  4. 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

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

Keep watching protectedplanet.net

This scan found 21 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

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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
65
Security headers
65
Email security
40
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
68

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 protectedplanet.net, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
33
Employees
0
Customers
33
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
33%

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 protectedplanet.net.

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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

Protected Planet operates as a data platform within the government and non-profit sectors, focusing on environmental conservation. Its competitive advantage lies in its authoritative data sources and partnerships with UNEP-WCMC and IUCN. The business model centers on data aggregation, API access, and providing resources and reports to a global audience of conservation stakeholders. The platform demonstrates growth through regular data updates and expanding thematic areas. Its partnership ecosystem includes major conservation organizations, enhancing credibility and reach. The website's operations reflect a mature digital presence with strategic alignment to global conservation goals.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement, Content Security Policy, and CSRF protection. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of additional security headers such as HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. The lack of publicly available incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies limits transparency and preparedness communication. GDPR compliance indicators are minimal, with no explicit privacy policy found. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by formalizing policies and expanding security controls.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy detailing data collection, usage, and user rights to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Implement and publicly disclose a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to enhance transparency and incident response readiness.
  3. Add additional security headers including Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy to strengthen security posture.
  4. Expand contact information to include phone numbers and physical addresses to improve user trust and support options.
  5. Regularly review and update cookie consent mechanisms and data retention policies to align with evolving privacy regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN
Description
Protected Planet is the most up to date and complete source of data on protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), updated monthly with submissions from governments, non-governmental organizations, landowners and communities.
Key services
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM), Data access via API, Monthly data updates, Reports and guidance resources
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Hotjar, Mapbox GL JS, FontAwesome, Google Fonts, Rails Active Storage
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Content Security Policy to upgrade insecure requests
  • CSRF tokens present in meta tags
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a comprehensive global data platform for protected areas and conservation measures.
  2. Content is well structured with clear navigation and thematic areas.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  4. Security posture is good but can be improved with additional headers and policies.
  5. Contact information is limited to email only; no phone or physical address found.
  6. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected.
  7. Cookie consent banner is implemented and functional.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information publicly available.
  9. Strong trust indicators due to association with UNEP-WCMC and IUCN.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a Ruby on Rails framework with integration of modern front-end libraries such as Mapbox GL JS for interactive mapping and FontAwesome for icons. It uses Google Fonts for typography and includes analytics via Google Analytics and Hotjar for user behavior insights. The site is mobile responsive with a clear navigation structure and SEO-friendly meta tags. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in asset loading and caching. Accessibility is basic, suggesting room for improvement in ARIA roles and keyboard navigation. Hosting details are not explicit but likely managed by UNEP-WCMC infrastructure or a cloud provider.
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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