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Security report for rug.nl

University of Groningen · Education · Netherlands

Low risk. No critical or high findings.

Security score

81/100

Risk levelLow

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

The University of Groningen is a well-established public university in the Netherlands, founded in 1614, with a strong global academic reputation as a top 100 university. It offers a wide range of educational programs from Bachelor to PhD levels and engages in extensive research activities. The website targets prospective students, researchers, alumni, and society/business partners, providing comprehensive information and services tailored to these groups. The business model is centered on education and research, supported by a large international network and collaborations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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

No critical or high findings. These medium findings are worth fixing next.

  1. 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.

    • Medium

      Missing X-Content-Type-Options header

      Prevents MIME type sniffing

      What to do: Add "X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff"

      • CAPEC-209
      • ASVS V3.4.4
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
    • Medium

      Missing Permissions-Policy header

      Controls browser features and APIs

      What to do: Implement a Permissions-Policy to restrict feature access

      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Permissions-Policy: accelerometer=(), autoplay=(), camera=(), cross-origin-isolated=(),…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Medium

      Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

      Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

      What to do: Update privacy policy to explicitly address GDPR requirements and user rights

  3. 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.

    • Medium

      DMARC not enforcing

      DMARC policy is set to "none"

      What to do: Gradually move to "quarantine" then "reject" policy

    • Medium

      No MTA-STS Policy

      MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

      What to do: Implement MTA-STS to prevent downgrade attacks

Keep watching rug.nl

This scan found 18 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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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
95
Security headers
70
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
81

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 university holds a strong market position as a leading academic institution with a diverse portfolio of degree programs and research initiatives. Its competitive advantages include a long history, international recognition, and a vibrant student city environment. The university leverages partnerships with cultural and research organizations and maintains active alumni relations. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand image, supporting its growth and outreach strategies.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced, cookie consent mechanisms, and no visible sensitive data exposure. However, it lacks publicly available security policies, incident response details, and vulnerability disclosure information, which are areas for improvement. The use of multiple analytics platforms is balanced with privacy compliance efforts. Security headers and explicit data protection officer contacts are not evident, suggesting opportunities to enhance transparency and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan on the website.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file.
  3. Add standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Provide clear contact details for the Data Protection Officer to improve GDPR transparency.
  5. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Groningen
Description
The University of Groningen has a high reputation for academic teaching and research and a large international network and offers degree programmes at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels in virtually every field.
Key services
Bachelor degree programmes, Master degree programmes, PhD programmes, Research activities, Open Science initiatives, Alumni engagement, Society and business collaboration
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, jQuery UI, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Piwik PRO, Fotorama, js-cookie, MD5 JavaScript, Custom RUG shared JS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async loading for analytics scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Piwik PRO
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik PRO
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Strong academic branding and consistent messaging.
  3. Comprehensive navigation structure covering education, research, society/business, alumni, news, and about us.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented with granular options.
  5. Use of multiple analytics and tracking services with privacy considerations.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information publicly available.
  7. No visible email addresses or phone numbers in the HTML content; contact primarily via contact forms.
  8. Social media presence on major platforms with official university accounts.
  9. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  10. No adult or NSFW content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom CMS with a technology stack including jQuery, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Piwik PRO for analytics. It employs asynchronous script loading to optimize performance and includes accessibility and SEO best practices. Mobile optimization and navigation clarity are strong. Performance is moderate, with opportunities to enhance hosting and infrastructure transparency. The technical implementation supports a professional user experience aligned with the university's brand.
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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