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Security report for sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University · Education · Canada

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a prominent Canadian public university with a strong focus on research, education, and community engagement. The website reflects SFU's market position as a leading comprehensive university in Canada, emphasizing innovation, sustainability, and inclusivity. The institution targets a broad audience including prospective and current students, faculty, alumni, and the general public. Key services include undergraduate and graduate programs, campus tours, research initiatives, and community support. The website content is rich, professionally designed, and well-structured, supporting SFU's reputation and outreach efforts. Technically, the website leverages modern technologies such as Adobe Experience Manager for content management, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and various social media and analytics integrations. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts enhancing user experience. However, some security headers are missing, and explicit cookie consent mechanisms are not detected, indicating areas for improvement in privacy compliance. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. Tracking and advertising scripts are present but managed responsibly. The absence of WHOIS data limits domain registration insights, but the overall legitimacy and trustworthiness of the site are high based on content and external references. No critical vulnerabilities or adult content are detected, making the site safe for general audiences. Overall, SFU's website demonstrates a mature digital presence with strong business credibility and a solid security posture. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent for GDPR compliance, and publishing clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure policies to further strengthen trust and compliance.

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

8 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 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';…

  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 sfu.ca

This scan found 27 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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
61

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

SFU holds a strong market position as a top Canadian comprehensive university with recognized rankings in innovation and sustainability. Its business model centers on delivering high-quality education and research while fostering community partnerships. Revenue streams likely include tuition, government funding, research grants, and donations. The target customer segments span domestic and international students, academic staff, alumni, and community stakeholders. The university maintains a broad partnership ecosystem, including government bodies and industry collaborators. Growth indicators include active research initiatives and expanding virtual campus tours. The website's extensive content and social media presence reflect a strategic focus on engagement and transparency.

Security posture

The security maturity level of SFU's website is good, with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive information. The use of modern analytics and marketing tools is balanced with privacy considerations, though explicit cookie consent is lacking. Missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent moderate compliance gaps. There is no evidence of incident response readiness or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms publicly available. Data protection practices appear standard for an educational institution, but formalization and publication of security policies would enhance posture. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from improved privacy and security transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Add X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options headers to enhance browser security.
  3. Deploy a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  5. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Simon Fraser University
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Simon Fraser University
Description
As Canada’s engaged university, SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change.
Key services
Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, Campus Tours, Research and Innovation, Community Engagement, Library Services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Twitter Universal Website Tag, Vimeo Player, YouVisit Virtual Tour Embed
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Facebook Analytics, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, Twitter Ads, Facebook Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Twitter Universal Website Tag, LinkedIn Insight Tag
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and multimedia
  2. Strong branding and consistent design across pages
  3. Multiple official social media channels linked
  4. No signs of phishing or malware
  5. No exposed sensitive data or credentials
  6. No explicit privacy or security policy pages for incident response or vulnerability disclosure
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to privacy protection or CIRA restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Adobe Experience Manager, a robust enterprise CMS, supporting modular content and responsive design. The tech stack includes jQuery and asynchronous loading of analytics and marketing scripts, contributing to moderate performance and good user experience. Multimedia content such as embedded Vimeo videos and virtual tours enhance engagement. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with clear navigation and SEO-friendly metadata. Technical risks include missing security headers and potential privacy compliance gaps. Modernization opportunities include enhancing security configurations and formalizing privacy controls to reduce technical debt and improve resilience.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 63/100Medium35 findingsView report
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