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Security report for publicart.ie

Arts Council of Ireland · Non-profit · Ireland

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

47/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Publicart.ie is a government-supported non-profit platform managed under the Arts Council of Ireland and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. It serves as a comprehensive resource for public art in Ireland, providing directories, news, and critical discourse for artists, commissioners, and audiences. The website is positioned as an authoritative source in the Irish public art sector, with a focus on cultural enrichment and community engagement. Technically, the site runs on an older TYPO3 CMS version with integrations such as Cookiebot for consent management and Google Analytics for tracking. While the site is functional and content-rich, it shows signs of aging infrastructure and basic mobile and accessibility support. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent implemented, but lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, and contact information is minimal. Overall, the site is trustworthy and legitimate but would benefit from technical modernization and enhanced security practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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. 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

  2. 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

  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"

    • 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';…

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

Keep watching publicart.ie

This scan found 29 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.

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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
43
Average
47

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

The website operates as a non-profit informational platform supported by Irish government arts bodies, targeting artists, commissioners, and cultural participants. Its business model is centered on providing curated content, directories, and opportunities related to public art, funded through public arts schemes such as the Per Cent for Art Scheme. The site maintains a stable market position as a key resource in Ireland's cultural sector, with partnerships evident through linked government domains. Growth indicators include active social media presence and ongoing news updates. However, the lack of direct contact information and limited interactive features suggest a primarily informational role rather than transactional or commercial. The partnership ecosystem includes the Arts Council and Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, reinforcing its official status.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and a cookie consent mechanism via Cookiebot, indicating GDPR compliance awareness. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth posture. The use of an outdated TYPO3 CMS version may expose the site to known vulnerabilities if not regularly patched. No public security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are present, limiting transparency and readiness for security incidents. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities were detected in the provided content. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an informational site but requires improvements to align with best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Upgrade TYPO3 CMS to a current supported version to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  4. Publish clear security policies and incident response contacts to improve transparency and preparedness.
  5. Enhance mobile optimization and accessibility to improve user experience and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Arts Council of Ireland
Description
A comprehensive public art resource commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, offering information, news, and discussion space for artistic practitioners, commissioners, audiences, and participants focused on public art in Ireland.
Key services
Public art directory, News and opportunities for artists, Information on commissioning and critical discourse
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS 4.7, jQuery, Google Custom Search, Cookiebot
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Cookiebot session tracker
Marketing tools
Google Custom Search, Cookiebot
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government-supported arts resource with stable domain and consistent WHOIS data.
  2. Content is informational and targeted at artists and commissioners in Ireland.
  3. Uses older TYPO3 CMS version which may pose security risks.
  4. Cookie consent is implemented via Cookiebot, indicating GDPR awareness.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found on the homepage content.
  6. No terms of service page detected.
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  9. Social media presence is active with multiple official channels linked.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on TYPO3 CMS version 4.7, an older release that may lack modern security and performance features. It uses jQuery and Google Custom Search for functionality, and Cookiebot for cookie consent management. Hosting is likely provided by HEAnet, an Irish academic and research network, consistent with the domain registrar. Performance is moderate with basic mobile and accessibility support. SEO is basic with meta descriptions and keywords present but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. The site includes multiple external scripts from trusted domains but lacks modern frontend frameworks or CDN usage. Technical debt is evident in the outdated CMS and lack of security headers, presenting modernization opportunities to improve security and user experience.
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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