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Security report for rijksoverheid.nl

Ministerie van Algemene Zaken · Government · Netherlands

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

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Rijksoverheid.nl is the official website of the Dutch government, managed by the Ministerie van Algemene Zaken. It serves as a comprehensive portal providing citizens with information on laws, regulations, news, and public services across all ministries. The site targets the general public in the Netherlands and offers multilingual support including English and Papiamento. The business model is focused on government information dissemination and public service, positioning it as the authoritative source for governmental content in the country. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including JavaScript, jQuery UI, and custom CMS solutions. It integrates analytics and survey platforms such as PPMS and Pastease to monitor user engagement and collect feedback. The site is mobile optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure suitable for a large enterprise government entity. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses nonce attributes in scripts to mitigate injection risks. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly presented with consent mechanisms, demonstrating compliance with GDPR. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not prominently available, and no security.txt file is found. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from enhanced transparency and additional security headers. The website is trustworthy, with consistent branding and official domain registration matching the government entity. No suspicious or malicious content is detected, and the site maintains a high standard of professionalism and user experience. Strategic recommendations include publishing a dedicated security policy, adding security headers, and implementing a security.txt file to improve vulnerability disclosure and incident response readiness.

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. 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 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

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

Keep watching rijksoverheid.nl

This scan found 13 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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  • 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
85
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
69

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

Rijksoverheid.nl holds a dominant position as the official Dutch government portal, providing authoritative content on legislation, regulations, and government news. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status and comprehensive coverage of all ministries. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and information dissemination. Revenue streams are government-funded. The target audience includes Dutch citizens, residents, and international visitors seeking government information. Growth indicators include multilingual support and integration of user feedback mechanisms. The partnership ecosystem includes language-specific domains and survey platforms. Operationally, the site reflects a well-maintained government digital presence with strong content governance and user engagement strategies.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, script nonce usage, and privacy-compliant cookie consent. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries are detected. However, the absence of explicit security policies and incident response contact details limits transparency. The lack of a security.txt file reduces ease of vulnerability reporting. Security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not explicitly observed, representing an area for improvement. Overall, the site is secure for public use but could enhance its security culture and incident readiness by publishing detailed policies and contact channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Add standard security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Implement and publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information, such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministerie van Algemene Zaken
Description
Rijksoverheid.nl is de officiële website of the Dutch government providing information, news, and explanations about laws and regulations from all ministries.
Key services
Information on laws and regulations, News updates, Public service announcements, Access to government documents and forms
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery UI, Pastease survey platform, PPMS analytics, HTML5, CSS3
Platforms
Platform Rijksoverheid survey, PPMS analytics platform
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of nonce in inline scripts
  • Cookie consent mechanism present
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
PPMS analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
PPMS analytics
Marketing tools
Pastease survey platform
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official Dutch government portal with comprehensive information.
  2. Content is well-structured, multilingual options available.
  3. Strong branding and consistent design.
  4. Good privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  6. Use of modern analytics and survey tools with privacy considerations.
  7. No explicit security policy or incident response contact found on homepage.
  8. No security.txt file detected.
  9. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable scripts detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom CMS with modern front-end technologies including JavaScript and jQuery UI. It integrates third-party analytics (PPMS) and survey tools (Pastease) hosted on government domains, ensuring data sovereignty. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with responsive CSS and ARIA landmarks. Performance is moderate, with preloading of key assets and asynchronous script loading. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies are detected. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and streamline analytics for improved privacy compliance. Hosting details are not explicit but likely government-managed infrastructure. Overall, the technical implementation supports a robust and user-friendly government portal.
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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