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Security report for researchgrants.gov.au

Australian Research Council · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

57/100

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

Research Grants Services (RGS) is a government-operated platform established by the Australian Research Council in 2020 to facilitate the discovery, funding, and management of research grants in Australia. The website serves as a centralized portal for grant opportunities, announcements, management, and resources targeted primarily at researchers, research institutions, and government partners. The platform leverages the GovCMS Drupal 10 content management system, ensuring a modern and responsive user experience with integration of Google Analytics and social media widgets for engagement and tracking. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and anonymized analytics, though improvements can be made by implementing security headers and explicit cookie consent mechanisms. The domain is a .gov.au domain, indicating official government use, though WHOIS data is privacy protected or restricted, which is typical for government domains. Overall, the site demonstrates high business credibility and professionalism with a clear focus on government research grant administration.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
Checks completed
6of 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Twitter

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching researchgrants.gov.au

This scan found 14 issues across 5 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

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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
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
57

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

RGS occupies a strong market position as an official Australian government service for research grant administration, leveraging the Australian Research Council's authority and expertise. Its business model is government-funded service provision, focusing on efficient grant management and transparency. The platform supports multiple grant programs and provides access to research management systems for various government sectors including Defence and Education. The partnership ecosystem includes the ARC and other government portals, enhancing its reach and trustworthiness. Growth indicators include recent program launches such as the National Intelligence Discovery Grants. The site’s content and navigation are designed to serve researchers and policy partners effectively, supporting Australia's research ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and anonymized Google Analytics tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for enhancement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact information limits transparency in security governance. Overall, the site is secure for its purpose but would benefit from adopting additional security best practices and compliance disclosures to strengthen trust and regulatory adherence.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Introduce a clear cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user transparency.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve security governance and user trust.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no privacy or security risks are introduced.
  5. Enhance WHOIS transparency if possible, or provide official domain registration details on the website for public assurance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Research Council
Description
Research Grants Services (RGS) was established by the Australian Research Council in 2020 to make it easier to find, fund and manage research.
Key services
Grant Opportunities, Grant Announcements & Outcomes, Grants Management, Resource Hub, Access to Research Management System Portals
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Tag Manager, Twitter Widgets
Frameworks
Bootstrap 5
Platforms
GovCMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • IP anonymization in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government service platform for research grant management in Australia.
  2. Content is well-structured and professionally presented.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via contact page.
  5. No explicit privacy cookie consent mechanism detected.
  6. WHOIS data is privacy protected or restricted, common for government domains.
  7. Uses modern CMS (Drupal 10) and GovCMS platform.
  8. Includes Google Analytics with IP anonymization.
  9. No security headers detected in HTML source; potential area for improvement.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 with GovCMS, a government-focused CMS platform, ensuring modern standards and maintainability. It uses Bootstrap 5 for responsive design and integrates Google Tag Manager and Twitter widgets for analytics and social engagement. Performance is moderate with no major issues detected, and mobile optimization is good. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, supporting inclusive design. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. The site does not expose any sensitive data and uses HTTPS exclusively. However, the absence of security headers and explicit cookie consent mechanisms indicates areas for technical improvement to align with best practices and compliance requirements.
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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