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Security report for sae.edu.au

SAE University College · Education · Australia

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

SAE University College is a leading higher education provider specializing in creative media and technology courses across Australia and internationally. It offers a wide range of industry-led programs in Animation, Audio, Design, Film, Games, Music, and related fields. The institution is part of the Navitas Group and holds important accreditations such as TEQSA and CRICOS, positioning it as a reputable player in the education sector. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern technologies and integrates multiple marketing and analytics tools, reflecting a mature digital presence. Security-wise, the site supports modern TLS protocols and has some best practices in place but is vulnerable to subdomain takeover and lacks HSTS enforcement, indicating areas for improvement. Overall, SAE University College maintains a professional and trustworthy online presence with comprehensive content and good user experience, though it should enhance its security posture and privacy compliance mechanisms.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

6 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

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

  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

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain dev.sae.edu.au points to unregistered service saestgsrv-1556583469.ap-southeast-2.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching sae.edu.au

This scan found 24 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
47
Security headers
40
Email security
50
DNS health
40
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
53

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

SAE University College holds a strong market position as a specialized education provider in creative media and technology, targeting students seeking practical and industry-relevant skills. Its business model focuses on delivering accelerated, project-based learning with a global footprint of 47 campuses, including 6 in Australia. The institution leverages its extensive industry connections and alumni network to enhance student employability. Its partnership with Navitas Group provides additional resources and stability. The website's content and structure support its brand as an innovative and student-focused college. Marketing efforts include diverse channels and retargeting strategies, indicating a robust approach to student recruitment and engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with support for TLS 1.2 and 1.3 and OCSP stapling enabled, ensuring encrypted and efficient connections. However, the absence of HSTS and DNSSEC, along with non-compliance with certificate transparency, exposes the site to potential risks. Notably, subdomain takeover vulnerabilities exist on dev.sae.edu.au and staging.sae.edu.au, which could be exploited by attackers. The DMARC policy is set to 'none', providing minimal email protection. There is no visible security policy or incident response information, which may impact trust and compliance. Overall, while basic security measures are in place, significant improvements are needed to enhance the security posture and reduce risk exposure.

Recommendations

  1. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce secure connections.
  2. Implement DNSSEC to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  3. Remediate subdomain takeover vulnerabilities by removing or securing unused CNAME records.
  4. Update DMARC policy to a stricter setting (e.g., quarantine or reject) to improve email security.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS, utilizing popular plugins such as Yoast SEO and Slider Revolution for content management and presentation. It employs modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Fonts, and integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools like Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, StackAdapt, and Bing Ads. Hosting is provided via Amazon AWS infrastructure, as indicated by the DNS nameservers. Performance is moderate with a page load time of approximately 7.2 seconds and a large page size (~940 KB). The site is optimized for mobile with responsive design and lazy loading of images. SEO is well addressed with structured data (JSON-LD), Open Graph tags, and canonical URLs. However, some technical debt is evident in the lack of DNSSEC and HSTS, and the presence of subdomain takeover 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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