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Security report for sciforum.net

MDPI AG · Education · Switzerland

Low risk. 5 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Sciforum.net is a well-established academic event management platform operated by MDPI AG, a reputable Swiss publishing company. The platform facilitates organizing and participating in scientific events, webinars, and conferences, supporting the open science movement. It targets researchers, academics, and event organizers, offering a comprehensive suite of tools including schedule building, online registration, submission management, and post-event surveys. The website is professionally designed with excellent content quality and consistent branding, reflecting a mature digital presence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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. 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
  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. 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 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';…

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

Keep watching sciforum.net

This scan found 14 issues across 5 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
80
Security headers
35
Email security
100
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
78

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention sciforum.net, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
771
Employees
0
Customers
771
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
12%

4 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for sciforum.net.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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 occupies a niche in the academic event management sector, leveraging MDPI's publishing ecosystem. Its business model centers on providing event organization services with customized support and pricing. The extensive list of forthcoming and ongoing events indicates active engagement and growth potential. The use of advanced marketing and analytics tools, combined with GDPR-compliant consent management, suggests a focus on user privacy and data-driven growth strategies. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers implies reliance on web forms for communication, which is common in such platforms.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS with TLS 1.3 and employs Google reCAPTCHA to mitigate bot activity. Consent management via Usercentrics ensures GDPR compliance for tracking and cookies. However, some security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy are missing, representing an area for improvement. DNSSEC is not enabled, which could enhance DNS security. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened with additional headers and DNSSEC.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and data injection attacks.
  2. Add security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy to improve browser security.
  3. Enable DNSSEC for the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and cache poisoning.
  4. Consider publishing direct company contact emails and phone numbers to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are in use.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
MDPI AG
Description
Sciforum is an event management platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to organize and participate in academic events.
Key services
Event organization tools, Online registration, Schedule building, Call for papers and submissions, Mailing lists, Billing, Copy editing and production, Post event surveys, Award management, Event gallery
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, FontAwesome, Tooltipster, Lightbox2, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Usercentrics CMP, reCAPTCHA v2, Akamai CDN, Boomerang performance monitoring
Frameworks
Foundation (CSS framework)
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection
  • Consent management for cookies and tracking
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status to prevent unauthorized transfers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Boomerang (performance monitoring)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Twitter Ads, Facebook Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Twitter Universal Website Tag
Marketing tools
Usercentrics Consent Management Platform
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional academic event management platform supporting open science.
  2. Content is rich with many upcoming and ongoing academic events listed.
  3. Strong use of third-party analytics and marketing tools with user consent management.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact is via web form.
  5. Security headers could be improved; DNSSEC is not enabled.
  6. Domain is long-established and consistent with business claims.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and popular libraries like jQuery, FontAwesome, Tooltipster, and Lightbox2. It leverages Google Tag Manager and Analytics for marketing and performance monitoring, alongside Usercentrics for consent management. Hosting is supported by Akamai CDN, enhancing content delivery performance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design using the Foundation CSS framework. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Accessibility features are basic but present. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The CMS appears custom-built, tailored for event management needs.
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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