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Security report for quebec.ca

Gouvernement du Québec · Government · Canada

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.quebec.ca serves as the official digital portal for the Gouvernement du Québec, providing comprehensive access to government information and services across multiple sectors such as agriculture, culture, education, health, justice, and more. It targets residents, businesses, and organizations within Québec, positioning itself as a trusted and authoritative source for provincial government resources. The site is well-branded, professionally designed, and offers clear navigation primarily in French with English language options. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, and Google reCAPTCHA to enhance user experience and security. The infrastructure supports good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although some improvements in security headers and cookie consent mechanisms could be made. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses CAPTCHA for form protection, and provides a clear channel for vulnerability reporting. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The lack of publicly available WHOIS data is consistent with Canadian government domain privacy norms and does not detract from the site's legitimacy. Overall, the website demonstrates a strong security posture, high content quality, and solid privacy compliance, making it a reliable and professional government resource. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing a visible security.txt file, and improving cookie consent transparency to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

8 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 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';…

  2. 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

    • 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

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

Keep watching quebec.ca

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.

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
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
61

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 Gouvernement du Québec operates this website as a central hub for delivering public services and information to its citizens and businesses. Its market position as a government entity is authoritative and non-competitive, focusing on service delivery rather than commercial revenue. The business model is public service oriented, funded by government budgets. The site supports a broad target audience including individuals, families, enterprises, and immigrants. Partnerships with other government agencies and service providers are evident through linked domains. The site’s extensive content and service offerings indicate a mature digital presence with ongoing updates and maintenance. Growth indicators include multilingual support and integration of modern analytics tools. The platform supports transparency and citizen engagement through open government initiatives and vulnerability reporting.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, use of CAPTCHA to prevent automated abuse, and a dedicated vulnerability reporting channel. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options suggests room for enhancement. No vulnerable or outdated libraries were detected in the source. Privacy policies and terms of use are clearly stated, supporting compliance with GDPR and Canadian privacy laws. Incident response readiness is indicated by the presence of security contact links. Overall, the site balances usability and security well but should adopt additional HTTP security headers and improve cookie consent mechanisms to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a security.txt file at the root domain to facilitate standardized vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to explicitly inform users and obtain consent in compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities or privacy risks are introduced.
  5. Increase transparency around data retention policies and user data handling to build greater trust with users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Gouvernement du Québec
Description
Accédez facilement à l'information et aux services gouvernementaux.
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, Google reCAPTCHA, jQuery, Bootstrap 4.3.1, Parsley.js, Popper.js
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Security vulnerability reporting link provided

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics (via GTM)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content in French primarily.
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  3. WHOIS data is not publicly available, typical for Canadian government domains.
  4. Strong use of official branding and consistent navigation.
  5. Multiple official social media links present.
  6. Privacy and terms policies are clearly linked and comprehensive.
  7. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  8. Use of modern web technologies and CMS TYPO3.
  9. Security best practices partially implemented; room for improvement in headers and cookie consent.
  10. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerabilities detected in source.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by TYPO3 CMS, a robust open-source content management system widely used in government and enterprise environments. It integrates several modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery, Bootstrap, Parsley.js for form validation, and Popper.js for UI elements. Analytics and user behavior tracking are implemented via Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, managed through Google Tag Manager. The site is optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, with responsive design and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, with some reliance on external resources like Google Fonts and CDN-hosted scripts. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, though improvements in security headers and cookie consent would enhance the overall technical maturity.
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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