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Security report for recherchescientifique.be

Portail officiel de la recherche scientifique en fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles · Government · Belgium

Medium risk. 10 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website 'Portail officiel de la recherche scientifique en fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles' serves as the official government portal for scientific research in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It provides comprehensive information on research activities, funding opportunities, career resources, and institutional partnerships. The portal targets researchers, academic institutions, government bodies, and the general public interested in scientific research within the region. The business model is government-funded, focusing on information dissemination and support for the research community. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS version 4.5, an outdated platform that may pose security risks. It employs common web technologies such as jQuery, Owl Carousel, and Matomo analytics for privacy-conscious user tracking. The site demonstrates moderate performance and good mobile optimization but lacks modern security headers and uses an older CMS version, indicating technical debt. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR requirements. However, the absence of visible security headers and the outdated CMS version present potential vulnerabilities. No direct contact emails or phone numbers are provided, with contact facilitated through forms. WHOIS data is unavailable due to domain registration restrictions, which slightly reduces trust but does not negate the site's legitimacy given its government affiliation. Overall, the website is a trustworthy and professional government portal with good content quality and user experience. Strategic improvements include updating the CMS, enhancing security headers, and publishing explicit security and incident response policies to strengthen the security posture and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 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

10 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';…

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
54

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 portal occupies a key position as the official gateway for scientific research information in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, leveraging government backing to provide authoritative content. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status and comprehensive coverage of research funding, careers, and institutional partnerships. The business model is informational and service-oriented, with no direct revenue streams. The target audience includes researchers, academic institutions, and government agencies. Growth indicators include integration with federation services and partnerships with research institutions. The ecosystem includes federation-wallonie-bruxelles.be and administrative portals like demarches.cfwb.be. Strategic observations suggest focusing on modernization and enhanced digital security to maintain trust and relevance.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and GDPR-compliant cookie consent. However, the use of an outdated TYPO3 CMS version 4.5 introduces potential vulnerabilities due to lack of security patches. The absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, X-Frame-Options, and HSTS reduces defense-in-depth. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, indicating gaps in transparency and readiness. The site does not expose sensitive data or show signs of vulnerabilities in the HTML content. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an informational government site but requires improvements to meet modern standards and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Upgrade TYPO3 CMS to the latest supported version to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish explicit security policies and incident response procedures accessible to users.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party JavaScript libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Portail officiel de la recherche scientifique en fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Description
Official portal providing information and resources related to scientific research in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, including funding, careers, and institutional partners.
Key services
Research information dissemination, Funding and grant announcements, Career opportunities in research, Partner and institutional networking
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS 4.5, jQuery 1.8.3, Owl Carousel, Matomo Analytics, SlickNav, JavaScript, CSS
Frameworks
TYPO3
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Cookie consent banner implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of HTTPS implied by URL

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
AddThis
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official government research portal for Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
  2. Content is in French and well-structured with clear navigation.
  3. Uses TYPO3 CMS version 4.5, which is outdated and may pose security risks.
  4. Cookie consent and privacy policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via forms only.
  6. No WHOIS data available due to domain restrictions.
  7. No signs of adult or malicious content.
  8. Uses Matomo analytics for privacy-respecting tracking.
  9. No visible security headers detected in HTML content.
  10. External links mostly to official government and partner domains.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses TYPO3 CMS 4.5, which is significantly outdated and may pose security and compatibility risks. The front-end employs jQuery 1.8.3, Owl Carousel for slideshows, and SlickNav for responsive menus. Matomo analytics is used for privacy-respecting user tracking. The site loads multiple CSS stylesheets for responsive design and uses standard meta tags for SEO. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility is basic. The site lacks modern security headers and could benefit from updated frameworks and improved technical debt management to enhance security and maintainability.
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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