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Security report for sacoronavirus.co.za

COVID-19 Coronavirus South African Portal · Government · South Africa

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 3 other checks.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The SA Coronavirus Online Portal is a government-related informational website focused on providing COVID-19 updates and public health information for South Africa. The site is currently under maintenance and directs users to the official Health South Africa Facebook page for the latest updates. The business model is informational and public service oriented, targeting the general South African population seeking reliable COVID-19 information. The website uses WordPress CMS with the Avada theme and Fusion Builder plugin, hosted by a reputable South African provider, xneelo. It employs Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for user tracking. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled but lacks DNSSEC and security headers. Privacy and cookie policies are absent, and no contact information is provided, which impacts compliance and trust. The domain registration is consistent with the website's purpose and geographic focus, created in March 2020 during the pandemic onset.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  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.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  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

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

Keep watching sacoronavirus.co.za

This scan found 27 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
72
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
45

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 portal serves as an official or semi-official government communication channel for COVID-19 information in South Africa. Its market position is as a trusted source for pandemic updates, leveraging social media integration with the Health South Africa Facebook page. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on public health awareness. The lack of direct contact information and policies suggests limited direct user engagement. The site’s partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms and Google analytics services. Growth indicators are limited due to the maintenance status. Strategic observations include the need to enhance transparency and compliance to maintain public trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with HTTPS enabled, ensuring encrypted communications. However, the absence of DNSSEC leaves DNS queries vulnerable to spoofing attacks. No security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security were detected, which could mitigate common web attacks. The site does not expose sensitive data or vulnerable libraries in the HTML content. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Incident response mechanisms and security contact channels are not provided, limiting readiness for security events. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but requires improvements to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to secure DNS infrastructure and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement essential security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  4. Add clear contact information including security incident response contacts.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
COVID-19 Coronavirus South African Portal
Description
Online portal providing information related to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in South Africa. Currently under maintenance with a redirect to the official Health South Africa Facebook page for latest updates.
Key services
COVID-19 updates, Public health information
Content quality
basic
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Google Analytics, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
Avada Theme, Fusion Builder
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
basic
User experience
basic
Content relevance
basic
Navigation
basic
Professionalism
basic
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is currently under maintenance with minimal content.
  2. Redirects users to official Health South Africa Facebook page for updates.
  3. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers provided on the site.
  5. Uses WordPress CMS with Avada theme and Fusion Builder plugin.
  6. Includes Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for tracking.
  7. No security headers detected; DNSSEC not enabled.
  8. WHOIS data is consistent and legitimate.
  9. No adult or unsafe content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS using the Avada theme and Fusion Builder plugin, indicating a modern and flexible infrastructure. Hosting is provided by xneelo, a reputable South African hosting company. The site loads moderate performance scripts including jQuery and Google Analytics. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. SEO is supported by Rank Math plugin and structured data in JSON-LD format. Accessibility is basic with some ARIA and semantic HTML elements. Technical debt appears low but the site is currently under maintenance, limiting content availability. Opportunities exist to improve security configurations and privacy compliance to reduce technical 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

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