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Security report for quae-open.com

Quae · Education · France

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

Quae-Open is an educational platform providing open access to scientific books primarily in the natural sciences domain. The website offers a catalog of over 300 books available for free download in PDF and ePub formats, targeting researchers, academics, and authors. The platform supports multilingual access (English and French) and includes author support and newsletter subscription features. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including jQuery, Bootstrap, Matomo analytics, and Google Tag Manager, with a responsive design and good SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and CSRF protections, but lacks some advanced security headers and explicit privacy policy documentation. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain is a notable concern for legitimacy and trust, although the site links to a known publisher domain, mitigating some risk. Overall, the site is functional, professional, and trustworthy for its educational purpose but would benefit from improved transparency and security disclosures.

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

2 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.

    • 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

  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 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

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

Keep watching quae-open.com

This scan found 20 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

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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
72
Security headers
75
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
77

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 in the education sector, focusing on open access scientific publishing. Its business model revolves around providing free digital access to scientific literature, likely supported by a parent publishing company (Quae). The target audience includes scientists, researchers, and academic authors. The site positions itself as a niche player in open access academic publishing, with a medium-sized catalog and a clear focus on natural sciences. The partnership with www.quae.com suggests integration with a commercial publishing ecosystem. The lack of direct contact emails or phone numbers and missing WHOIS data may limit some business credibility but does not detract from the site's functional offerings. Growth potential exists through expanded content and improved compliance transparency.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with enforced HTTPS, CSRF tokens in forms, and a cookie consent mechanism. It uses reputable analytics platforms with default denied consent settings, indicating privacy awareness. However, it lacks explicit privacy policy and terms of service pages, which are critical for GDPR compliance. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information is present, limiting incident response readiness. Security headers beyond basic ones are not detected, and no vulnerabilities were found in the visible content. The missing WHOIS data raises concerns about domain legitimacy, which should be addressed to improve trust. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced with better transparency and additional security controls.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy page detailing data collection and GDPR compliance.
  2. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Provide a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure policy to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Verify and update WHOIS domain registration information to improve legitimacy and trust.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Quae
Description
Quae-Open provides open access to scientific books, focusing on natural sciences and related fields. It offers free downloadable ebooks in formats such as PDF and ePub, targeting researchers, authors, and readers interested in scientific literature.
Key services
Open access scientific books, Free ebook downloads, Author support area, Newsletter subscription
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Matomo Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Owl Carousel, FontAwesome, Google Fonts (Roboto)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF tokens present in forms
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Google Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo, Google Analytics (via GTM)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website offers free open access scientific books with a professional catalog and author support.
  2. No WHOIS data available, which is unusual and reduces trust score.
  3. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found on main site.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via form only.
  6. Uses Matomo and Google Analytics for tracking with default denied consent settings.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  8. No social media links detected in provided content.
  9. Website is multilingual (English and French).
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, Owl Carousel, FontAwesome, and Google Fonts, ensuring a responsive and visually appealing design. Analytics are handled via Matomo and Google Tag Manager with privacy-conscious default settings. The site structure is clear with well-organized navigation and search functionality. Performance is moderate with asynchronous script loading and preloading of fonts. However, the CMS or platform is not explicitly identified, suggesting a custom or proprietary solution. There is room for improvement in accessibility and advanced SEO features. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified, but analytics are hosted on Matomo Cloud. Overall, the technical implementation supports a good user experience and functional business operations.
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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