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Security report for sadc.ca

Société d’assurance-dépôts du Canada · Finance · Canada

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Société d’assurance-dépôts du Canada (SADC) is a Canadian government entity responsible for promoting the stability of the Canadian financial system by providing deposit insurance to member institutions. The website serves as an authoritative source of information for depositors, financial professionals, and member institutions, offering resources such as deposit insurance calculators, FAQs, compliance guidelines, and news updates. The bilingual presence with an English counterpart at www.cdic.ca enhances accessibility for Canada's diverse population. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, and Algolia search integration. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility features, supported by comprehensive SEO practices including structured data and meta tags. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses several tracking and analytics tools responsibly. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the site shows no signs of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries. The absence of public WHOIS data suggests privacy protection, which is justified given the nature of the organization. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, reflecting a mature privacy posture. Overall, the website presents a professional, trustworthy, and secure digital presence consistent with a government financial institution. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security header implementation, publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, and improving incident response contact visibility to further strengthen trust and security.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

5 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 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Cloudflare

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

  3. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching sadc.ca

This scan found 19 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

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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
80
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
73

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

SADC holds a critical role in the Canadian financial sector as the national deposit insurance corporation. Its market position is strong, backed by government authority and a clear mandate to protect depositors and maintain financial stability. The business model revolves around providing insurance coverage for deposits held by member institutions, funded through premiums and regulatory oversight. The target customers include individual depositors, financial professionals, member banks, and payment service providers. The website's extensive resources and compliance information indicate a well-established partnership ecosystem and a focus on regulatory adherence. Growth indicators include active communication channels, educational resources, and a bilingual approach to serve a broad Canadian audience.

Security posture

The security maturity of the SADC website is solid, with mandatory HTTPS and use of reputable analytics and tag management tools. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were detected in the HTML content. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not clearly present and should be verified or implemented. The site lacks a public vulnerability disclosure or incident response contact, which are important for transparency and rapid mitigation of security issues. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, indicating good data protection practices. Overall, the security posture is strong but can be improved with enhanced header policies and incident response readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a formal vulnerability disclosure policy and provide clear incident response contact information.
  3. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  4. Enhance user trust by making security and privacy practices more transparent on the website.
  5. Develop a long-term security strategy that includes continuous monitoring, employee training, and compliance updates.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Société d’assurance-dépôts du Canada
Description
Nous sommes la société d’État qui encourage la stabilité du système financier canadien en fournissant une assurance contre la perte des dépôts assurables détenus par nos institutions membres en cas de faillite de l’une d’entre elles.
Key services
Deposit insurance, Financial system stability, Information and resources for depositors and financial professionals
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.2, jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI, Yoast SEO Premium, Algolia Search, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft UET, Bing Ads, Typekit Fonts
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Microsoft UET with async loading
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Bing UET
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Bing Ads
Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity, Bing UET
Transparency
good

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. Content is in French with alternate English site at www.cdic.ca.
  3. Strong use of structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO and organization info.
  4. Multiple navigation menus with comprehensive information for depositors and financial professionals.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  6. No exposed sensitive data or obvious security issues in HTML content.
  7. WHOIS data is not publicly available, likely due to privacy protection.
  8. Social media presence on major platforms with official accounts.
  9. No visible contact emails in HTML but contact page likely contains forms and phone numbers.
  10. Privacy and cookie policies are present and appear comprehensive.
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern WordPress CMS with up-to-date plugins and libraries such as jQuery and Algolia for search functionality. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools including Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Bing UET, and Google Tag Manager, all loaded asynchronously to optimize performance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in hosting and caching strategies. The technical infrastructure is robust but would benefit from explicit security header implementation and enhanced monitoring capabilities 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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