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Security report for rare-diseases.at

Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft · Healthcare · Austria

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

42/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD) is a specialized Austrian research institute focused on investigating rare diseases, particularly those affecting the immune system, blood formation, and nervous system. The institute operated for seven years until March 2023, contributing valuable scientific insights and supporting patients through its research. The website serves as an informational platform targeting researchers, medical professionals, and affected patients, providing news, research areas, and organizational information. The business model is non-profit, funded by grants and public sources, and it operates under the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft umbrella. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and hosted on servers associated with domaindiscount24.net. While the site has a professional design with good navigation and mobile optimization, it suffers from critical security shortcomings, notably the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support. This exposes visitors to potential risks and undermines trust. The site uses Matomo analytics for user tracking and includes a cookie consent banner, indicating some level of privacy compliance, though GDPR compliance is not fully evident. Security posture is weak due to missing HTTPS, lack of security headers, and outdated SSL/TLS configurations. No incident response or security policies are publicly disclosed. Contact information is clearly provided, including phone, address, and an obfuscated email address. Social media presence is active across major platforms, enhancing outreach and trust. Overall, the website is functional and informative but requires urgent security improvements to protect users and enhance credibility. Strategic recommendations include implementing HTTPS, improving security headers, and enhancing privacy compliance documentation.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 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

8 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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  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"

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

Keep watching rare-diseases.at

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.

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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
0
Security headers
15
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
42

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

LBI-RUD holds a niche position in the Austrian healthcare research sector, focusing on rare diseases with a strong scientific foundation. Its affiliation with the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft lends credibility and access to funding. The institute's research areas cover immunology, neurobiology, bioinformatics, and bioethics, targeting a specialized audience of researchers and clinicians. The business model is grant-funded non-profit research, with no commercial activities evident. The website supports dissemination of research findings and institutional news, fostering community engagement. Partnerships appear limited to the parent organization and scientific collaborators. Growth indicators are not explicit, but the closure in 2023 suggests project lifecycle completion. The digital presence is moderate, with room for technical and security enhancements to support future initiatives or successor projects.

Security posture

The current security posture of the website is poor. The absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support is a critical vulnerability, exposing users to data interception and undermining trust. No advanced security headers or mechanisms such as HSTS, CSP, or OCSP stapling are implemented. TLS protocols are not supported, indicating outdated or misconfigured server security. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are visible, limiting transparency and preparedness. The site does not appear to collect sensitive data via forms, reducing immediate risk, but the lack of secure transport remains a major concern. Privacy compliance is partially addressed through cookie consent, but GDPR adherence is unclear. Overall, the site requires urgent remediation to meet basic security standards and protect user data.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and configure HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  3. Update server TLS configuration to support TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 with strong cipher suites.
  4. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  5. Publish clear security and incident response policies, including vulnerability disclosure and contact channels.
  6. Enhance privacy compliance by providing a comprehensive privacy policy with GDPR adherence details.
  7. Regularly audit and update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  8. Improve website performance metrics and accessibility features for better user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress 6.8.1 running on an Apache server hosted likely by domaindiscount24.net. The front-end uses standard CSS and JavaScript with some custom scripts for cookie consent and email obfuscation. The site lacks HTTPS, which is a major technical deficiency. Performance data is missing, but inferred slow loading may be due to lack of optimization or server configuration. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO basics like meta tags and Open Graph tags are present but minimal. Accessibility is basic with no advanced ARIA or semantic enhancements detected. The site uses Matomo analytics for tracking, indicating a preference for privacy-friendly analytics over Google Analytics. Overall, the technical stack is standard but requires modernization and security hardening to meet current best practices.
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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