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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

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) is the central federal institution in Germany responsible for disease surveillance and prevention. The website serves as an authoritative public health portal providing comprehensive information, research data, and guidance on infectious and non-infectious diseases. It targets public health professionals, government agencies, researchers, and the general public. The RKI holds a strong market position as Germany's leading public health authority. Technically, the website is built on the Government Site Builder CMS, featuring modern HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript technologies. It is hosted by ITZBund, a government IT service provider, and demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices. The site employs Matomo analytics with anonymized data collection and a robust cookie consent mechanism, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses secure forms, but lacks explicit security headers and a published security policy or incident response contact. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected. Privacy compliance is strong, with GDPR-aligned policies and transparent cookie management. Overall, the RKI website is a professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained government resource with excellent content quality and privacy practices. Strategic improvements could include adding security headers and publishing a formal security policy to enhance trust and compliance further.

Scanned

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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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Keep watching rki.de

This scan found 22 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
77
Security headers
70
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

The RKI operates as a government entity in the healthcare sector, focusing on public health surveillance, research, and communication. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status and comprehensive data resources. The business model is non-commercial, funded by the government, with a focus on public service. The target audience includes health professionals, policymakers, and the public. Growth indicators include ongoing publication of epidemiological bulletins and data dashboards. The partnership ecosystem includes government IT providers like ITZBund. The website reflects a stable and authoritative presence in the German public health landscape.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with enforced HTTPS, secure data collection forms, and anonymized analytics. However, it lacks some advanced security headers and does not publicly disclose a security policy or incident response contacts, which are common best practices. There are no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. GDPR compliance is evident through privacy and cookie policies. The absence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file suggests room for improvement in transparency and incident readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced with additional policies and headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response contact information.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to improve protection against common web attacks.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or publish a security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Continue to maintain and enhance privacy compliance, especially with evolving regulations like NIS2.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to mitigate potential 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
Das Robert Koch-Institut ist die zentrale Einrichtung der Bundesregierung auf dem Gebiet der Krankheitsüberwachung und –prävention.
Key services
Disease surveillance and prevention, Public health research, Health data publication, Guidance on vaccinations and infectious diseases, Public health communication
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

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

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in for statistics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional government public health portal.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with clear navigation.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie consent mechanisms are in place.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  5. Use of Matomo analytics with anonymized data collection.
  6. No visible security policy or incident response contact found.
  7. No terms of service page detected.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a government-specific CMS (Government Site Builder) with a modern tech stack including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Hosting is managed by ITZBund, indicating a government-grade infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, likely due to rich content and multiple navigation layers. There is no evidence of technical debt or deprecated technologies. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and implement advanced performance optimizations.
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. 56/100Medium28 findingsView report
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