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Security report for scival.com

Elsevier · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

SciVal, a product of Elsevier, is a sophisticated research analytics platform designed to visualize research performance, benchmark against peers, and facilitate collaborative partnerships. The platform targets academic institutions, researchers, and policy makers, offering comprehensive insights into research trends. The website demonstrates a mature technical infrastructure leveraging Adobe Analytics, Pendo, and OneTrust for analytics and consent management, hosted on AWS infrastructure. The site is well-branded and professionally designed, with good mobile optimization and user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not evident in the provided data. Privacy compliance is moderate, with a cookie policy and consent mechanism present but no explicit privacy policy found on the landing page. Overall, the website reflects a credible enterprise-level service with room for improvement in transparency and security hardening.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 100 · Low
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

4 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
    • 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. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1
    • 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 scival.com

This scan found 21 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.

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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
57
Security headers
35
Email security
60
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
70

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 scival.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
989
Employees
0
Customers
989
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
20%

12 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 scival.com.

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

Elsevier's SciVal holds a strong market position as a leading research performance analytics tool. The business model is subscription-based SaaS, targeting research institutions and administrators. The platform's competitive advantage lies in its integration with Elsevier's extensive research databases and analytics capabilities. The website's use of advanced analytics tools and consent management indicates a focus on data-driven insights and regulatory compliance. However, the absence of direct contact information and detailed privacy/security policies on the landing page suggests potential areas for enhancing customer trust and engagement. The partnership ecosystem includes Elsevier's main domain and trusted analytics providers, reinforcing the platform's enterprise credibility.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and employs domain status protections to prevent unauthorized domain changes, indicating a baseline security maturity. The use of Adobe Launch and Pendo for analytics is standard for enterprise sites, but the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content Security Policy or HSTS represent gaps. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. The absence of published security policies or incident response contacts limits transparency. Overall, the security posture is moderate with recommendations to enable DNSSEC, implement security headers, and publish security and incident response information to enhance trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy accessible from the landing page.
  3. Add security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Publish security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerable libraries are used.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Elsevier
Description
SciVal enables visualization of research performance, benchmarking relative to peers, development of collaborative partnerships, and analysis of research trends. It offers quick, easy access to research performance data from authors to institutions and countries.
Key services
Research performance visualization, Benchmarking, Collaboration development, Trend analysis
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Adobe Analytics, Pendo, jQuery, YouTube IFrame API, OneTrust Cookie Consent, AWS DNS hosting
Frameworks
Adobe Launch (Tag Management)
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Adobe Analytics, Pendo
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Adobe Analytics, Pendo
Marketing tools
Adobe Launch, Pendo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website uses modern analytics and consent management tools.
  2. No direct contact information or privacy policy found on landing page.
  3. Strong domain registration and DNS configuration except missing DNSSEC.
  4. Content is focused on research analytics and performance visualization.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including Adobe Analytics, Pendo, jQuery, and YouTube IFrame API, integrated via Adobe Launch tag management. Hosting is on AWS as indicated by DNS nameservers. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts and cookie consent management via OneTrust. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility features are basic. SEO is supported by meta tags but could be enhanced with structured data. The site lacks CMS identification but appears custom-built or enterprise-grade. Technical risks include missing DNSSEC and security headers, which could be addressed to improve security posture.
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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