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Security report for scienceconnect.io

John Wiley & Sons, Inc · Technology · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

ScienceConnect.io is a digital platform operated under John Wiley & Sons, Inc, designed to provide researchers with a unified account system to access, discover, organize, and publish scholarly research across multiple publisher platforms. The platform leverages modern web technologies including React and Material-UI, and is built by Atypon, a Wiley brand recognized as a leader in digital scientific publishing technology. The website demonstrates a professional and consistent brand presence, targeting academic researchers and scholarly publishers. Technically, the site is hosted behind Cloudflare DNS and CDN services, ensuring good performance and security. The platform supports secure authentication mechanisms such as Passkeys and centralized privacy controls, enhancing user security and experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place, although DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are not published. Privacy compliance is partially met with privacy and terms of use pages available, but lacks a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the website is trustworthy, well-structured, and serves a critical role in the academic publishing ecosystem.

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. 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

  2. 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 scienceconnect.io

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

€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

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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
75
Security headers
60
Email security
85
DNS health
80
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

The platform positions itself as an essential identity and access management solution for scholarly publishing, enabling seamless user experience across multiple publisher services. Its affiliation with Wiley and Atypon provides a competitive advantage and market credibility. The business model focuses on providing free and open access to researchers while partnering with publishers to streamline content access and institutional verification. The target customers are academic researchers and scholarly publishers globally. The platform's growth is supported by a broad ecosystem of trusted scholarly publishers, as evidenced by the numerous logos displayed. Strategic partnerships with technology providers like Atypon enhance its technological capabilities and market reach.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced, clientTransferProhibited domain status, and use of modern authentication methods including Passkeys. Security headers for cache control are present, reducing risks of stale content. However, the absence of DNSSEC is a minor vulnerability that could expose DNS spoofing risks. No explicit security policy or incident response contacts are published, which could hinder transparency and response readiness. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The platform would benefit from publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to improve security culture and user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a cookie policy and consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response contact information.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility and SEO features to improve user experience and discoverability.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Description
Connect provides a unified account system for researchers to read, discover, organize, and publish research articles seamlessly across multiple scholarly publisher platforms and services.
Key services
Single sign-on for multiple publisher platforms, Institutional membership verification, Access to scholarly content, Profile and privacy management
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Material-UI, Cloudflare DNS, OpenID Connect, OAuth2, JavaScript ES Modules
Frameworks
React, Material-UI
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Use of Passkeys for secure access
  • Centralized privacy and profile controls

Analytics and tracking

Services
Cloudflare Insights
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Cloudflare Insights
Marketing tools
Crisp Chat
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional platform for academic research access and identity management.
  2. Strong affiliation with Wiley and Atypon brands.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the about page.
  4. Privacy and terms pages are present but cookie consent is missing.
  5. Modern React-based frontend with Material-UI components.
  6. No forms detected on the about page.
  7. No social media links explicitly found on the about page.
  8. Security posture is good but could be improved with DNSSEC and explicit security policies.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern React-based frontend with Material-UI components, ensuring a responsive and visually consistent user interface. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The site loads JavaScript modules asynchronously and uses Google Fonts for typography. Performance is moderate with no major issues detected, though some improvements in SEO and accessibility could be made. No CMS was detected, indicating a custom or proprietary platform. The technical stack aligns well with the platform's goals of seamless multi-platform access and identity management.
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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