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Security report for sam.gov

U.S. General Services Administration · Government · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

SAM.gov is the official U.S. government platform managed by the General Services Administration, providing comprehensive services related to federal contracting, entity registration, federal assistance, wage determinations, and federal hierarchy data. It serves as a critical resource for businesses and entities seeking to engage with the federal government. The platform is well-established, with a domain age dating back to 2004, and is positioned as a trusted authoritative source in the government procurement ecosystem. Technically, SAM.gov leverages Drupal 10 CMS, integrates with Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics, and uses AWS for DNS hosting. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, contributing to a positive user experience. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and has domain transfer protections, but could improve by enabling DNSSEC and publishing explicit security headers and incident response information. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with clear privacy and terms policies, though cookie consent mechanisms are absent. Overall, SAM.gov exhibits a strong security posture and high business credibility, with recommendations to enhance transparency and security controls further.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

3 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 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

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

Keep watching sam.gov

This scan found 17 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
90
Security headers
55
Email security
73
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
76

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

SAM.gov operates as a government essential entity under the U.S. General Services Administration, targeting businesses and government agencies involved in federal procurement and assistance. Its business model centers on providing authoritative data and registration services, facilitating compliance with federal acquisition regulations. The platform's partnerships with acquisition.gov, usaspending.gov, grants.gov, and fsd.gov strengthen its ecosystem and service delivery. The site’s enterprise scale and long operational history underscore its market leadership in government contracting services. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers is consistent with government service models relying on centralized support desks. The platform’s continuous updates and announcements reflect active maintenance and responsiveness to regulatory changes.

Security posture

SAM.gov demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, domain transfer prohibitions, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the lack of DNSSEC and explicit security headers represents areas for improvement. The site uses secure Drupal forms and integrates with trusted analytics services. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected in the content. The absence of a published security.txt or incident response contact limits transparency for vulnerability reporting. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced DNS security and published security policies to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve DNS security.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to provide clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response contact information.
  3. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  5. Enhance public documentation of security policies and incident response procedures to build trust and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. General Services Administration
Description
SAM.gov is the official U.S. government system for contracting, federal assistance, entity information, wage determinations, and federal hierarchy data. It facilitates entity registration and provides access to federal procurement and assistance data.
Key services
Contracting data and opportunities, Federal assistance listings, Entity registration and unique entity ID issuance, Wage determinations, Federal hierarchy information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, YouTube iframe API, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, AWS DNS
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ServerTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with CSRF tokens (Drupal standard)

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive federal contracting and assistance services
  3. Uses modern Drupal CMS and integrates with YouTube and Google Analytics
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  5. Clear privacy and terms policies present
  6. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found, but feedback form and external Federal Service Desk links provided
  7. No cookie consent mechanism detected
  8. No explicit security.txt or incident response info published
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, indicating a modern and supported content management system. It integrates with YouTube iframe API for video content and uses Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking and analytics. DNS hosting is managed via AWS, providing reliable infrastructure. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, likely due to the complexity and size of the site. No deprecated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The technical infrastructure supports a secure and user-friendly experience but could be enhanced with additional security configurations.
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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