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Security report for pwc-stiftung.de

PwC-Stiftung · Education · Germany

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

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PwC-Stiftung is a German non-profit foundation focused on promoting economic ethics and cultural education through project funding and its own educational programs. The foundation operates several participatory programs such as Wirtschafts.Forscher!, Hör.Forscher!, and Kultur.Forscher!, targeting schools and students, especially addressing pandemic-related educational gaps and refugee integration. The website is built on WordPress with a moderate technical infrastructure including common plugins for SEO, sliders, and cookie management. Hosting is provided by IONOS, and the site includes structured data for SEO and social media optimization. However, the security posture is weak due to an invalid SSL certificate, lack of modern TLS protocols, and missing security headers and DNS security features. Cookie consent is implemented in compliance with GDPR, enhancing privacy protections. Overall, the site presents a professional and trustworthy image but requires urgent improvements in SSL and security configurations to protect users and data.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

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

    • 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

  2. 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 pwc-stiftung.de

This scan found 24 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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  • 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
85
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
75
GDPR outside view
18
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

PwC-Stiftung holds a niche position in the German educational non-profit sector, focusing on economic and cultural education. Its business model revolves around funding external projects and running its own educational initiatives using research-based learning methods. The foundation is affiliated with the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft e.V., indicating a strong institutional backing. The target audience includes schools, educators, and cultural institutions. The foundation leverages partnerships for payment processing and exhibitions, enhancing its operational ecosystem. The website content and social media presence support outreach and engagement with stakeholders. Growth indicators include recent exhibitions and focus on pandemic-related educational challenges. The foundation maintains a consistent brand and good content quality, supporting its market position as a specialized educational funder and operator.

Security posture

The current security maturity of the PwC-Stiftung website is low due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of support for modern TLS protocols, exposing visitors to potential interception risks. The absence of HSTS, DMARC, DNSSEC, and CAA records further weakens the domain's security posture. While SPF is configured correctly, email security could be enhanced with DMARC. The site implements GDPR-compliant cookie consent via Borlabs Cookie, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. No explicit security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are found, suggesting limited formal security governance publicly available. The lack of security headers and modern encryption standards represents a significant compliance and risk gap. Overall, the site requires immediate remediation to secure communications and improve trustworthiness.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate supporting TLS 1.2 or 1.3 to secure all website traffic.
  2. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  3. Implement DMARC policy alongside existing SPF to protect email domain from spoofing and phishing.
  4. Enable DNSSEC to ensure DNS query integrity and prevent DNS spoofing attacks.
  5. Add Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) DNS records to restrict which CAs can issue certificates for the domain.
  6. Configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  7. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  8. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and scripts to reduce attack surface.
  9. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all visitors.
  10. Maintain and monitor cookie consent mechanisms to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a range of common plugins including Yoast SEO for search optimization, Slider Revolution for interactive content, Owl Carousel for sliders, Bootstrap for responsive design, and Borlabs Cookie for cookie consent management. The hosting provider is IONOS, as indicated by DNS MX and SPF records. The site loads moderately with 60 resources and a page size of approximately 44 KB, resulting in a load time of about 5.3 seconds, which is acceptable but could be optimized. Mobile optimization is good, with responsive design elements and accessible navigation. Structured data in JSON-LD format is implemented for SEO and social sharing. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent critical technical debt and security risk. The site uses several JavaScript libraries including jQuery, GreenSock (GSAP), and ScrollMagic for animations and interactivity. Overall, the technical infrastructure is standard for a mid-sized non-profit website but requires urgent security upgrades and performance tuning.
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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