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Security report for rki.de

Robert Koch-Institut · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) is the German federal government agency responsible for disease control and prevention, specializing in infectious and non-communicable diseases. The website serves as the official public portal providing comprehensive public health information, epidemiological research, vaccination recommendations, and data visualizations targeted at health professionals, researchers, government bodies, and the general public. The RKI holds a leading position in Germany's public health sector, supported by its authoritative content and government backing. Technically, the website is built on the Government Site Builder CMS, employing modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It features responsive design, accessibility considerations, and a self-hosted Matomo analytics platform respecting user privacy. Hosting is inferred to be managed by ITZBund, a German federal IT service provider, ensuring reliable infrastructure. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses cookie consent mechanisms with anonymized tracking, and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly visible, and no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found. The overall security posture is strong but could be enhanced by publishing formal security documentation. Overall, the RKI website is a professional, trustworthy, and privacy-conscious government resource with excellent content quality and user experience. It poses minimal risk and aligns well with GDPR and other compliance requirements, making it a reliable source for public health information.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of rki.de. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

4 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

    • 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

  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

      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

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

Keep watching rki.de

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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  • 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
75
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
56

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

RKI operates as a government entity in the healthcare sector, focusing on public health surveillance, research, and policy guidance. Its competitive advantage lies in its official mandate and authoritative data. The business model is non-commercial, funded by government budgets, targeting health professionals, policymakers, and the public. The website supports transparency and outreach, enhancing public trust. Partnerships with federal IT providers and use of government CMS indicate a strong ecosystem. Growth indicators include continuous publication of epidemiological bulletins and data dashboards. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining high security and privacy standards given the sensitive nature of health data and public trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, secure form handling, and privacy-respecting analytics. The presence of a cookie consent banner with opt-in for statistical cookies aligns with GDPR. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a publicly available security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms represents a compliance gap. Publishing these would improve transparency and readiness. Security headers are partially inferred but not explicitly confirmed. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced security documentation and formal incident response channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Audit and explicitly configure security headers like X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy.
  5. Maintain regular security assessments of third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Robert Koch-Institut
VAT number
DE 165 893 430
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Robert Koch-Institut
Description
Homepage des deutschsprachigen Auftritts des Robert Koch-Instituts, dem deutschen Bundesinstitut für Infektionskrankheiten und nicht übertragbare Krankheiten.
Key services
Epidemiologische Forschung, Gesundheitsberichterstattung, Infektionsschutz, Impfempfehlungen, Datenvisualisierung und Dashboards
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Government Site Builder CMS, Slick Slider
Frameworks
Government Site Builder
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in for analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of POST method for search forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo (self-hosted)
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official German government health institute website
  2. Comprehensive public health information and resources
  3. Strong privacy and cookie consent implementation
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  5. Professional and accessible design
  6. Use of self-hosted analytics respecting privacy
  7. No visible security policy or incident response info publicly available
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a government-specific CMS (Government Site Builder) with modern front-end technologies including responsive CSS and JavaScript libraries like Slick Slider. The infrastructure is hosted likely by ITZBund, a federal IT service provider, ensuring stable and secure hosting. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph, and structured JSON-LD data. Technical risks are low, but modernization opportunities include enhancing security headers and formalizing security documentation. The site avoids heavy third-party dependencies, reducing attack surface and privacy risks.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 69/100Medium30 findingsView report
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