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Security report for sg.ch

Kanton St.Gallen · Government · Switzerland

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.sg.ch serves as the official digital portal for the Canton of St.Gallen, Switzerland, providing comprehensive access to government information, administrative services, news, and public communication channels. It targets residents, businesses, and visitors seeking authoritative cantonal information and e-services. The site is well-positioned as a trusted government resource with a broad range of key services including news updates, administrative contacts, and interactive forms for citizen engagement. Technically, the site leverages a modern technology stack including Adobe Experience Manager CMS, jQuery, Bootstrap, and Google reCAPTCHA for security. The presence of Swiftype search enhances user experience with advanced search capabilities. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure suitable for a government entity. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS, includes CSRF protection, and uses CAPTCHA to mitigate abuse on forms. While explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not published, the site demonstrates good security hygiene with no evident vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy and GDPR adherence, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Overall, the site is highly trustworthy and professional, with no signs of malicious activity or content safety concerns. It effectively balances public service delivery with security and privacy considerations, making it a reliable portal for cantonal information and services.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of sg.ch. View the latest report

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

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 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

  3. 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

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

Keep watching sg.ch

This scan found 23 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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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
72
Security headers
50
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
73

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 Canton of St.Gallen operates this portal as a key communication and service platform for its constituents. The government sector focus ensures stable demand and a clear mandate for transparency and accessibility. The portal supports multiple communication channels including social media and newsletters, enhancing citizen engagement. The business model is non-commercial, centered on public service delivery. The site’s market position is authoritative within its jurisdiction, with no direct commercial competition. Strategic partnerships with related cantonal services and e-service platforms are evident. Growth indicators include active news updates and digital service expansion. The portal’s ecosystem supports government transparency, administrative efficiency, and public trust.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implied. The use of Google reCAPTCHA and CSRF tokens on forms reduces risk of automated abuse and cross-site attacks. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy is present, which is a minor gap in transparency. No exposed credentials or sensitive data were found in the HTML content. The site lacks explicit incident response contact information, which could improve responsiveness to security events. Overall, the security measures align with best practices for government websites, providing a robust defense against common threats.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user trust.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance HTTP security headers by adding Referrer-Policy and Permissions-Policy for improved security posture.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Kanton St.Gallen
Description
Website des Kantons St.Gallen: Zugang zu Informationen der Kantonsverwaltung, Regierung, Gerichte und aktuelle Medienmitteilungen.
Key services
Information dissemination, E-Services portal, News and media releases, Contact and communication channels
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Slick Slider, Google reCAPTCHA v2, Swiftype Search, Hogan.js templating, Bootstrap (implied by classes and JS), FontAwesome icons
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF protection script included
  • Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Input validation on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Siteimprove Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
siteimproveanalytics.com
Marketing tools
Google reCAPTCHA
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official cantonal government portal for St.Gallen, Switzerland.
  2. Content is comprehensive, well-structured, and professionally presented.
  3. Multiple social media channels linked for public engagement.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (AEM).
  5. Security best practices observed but lacks explicit cookie consent and security policy pages.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  7. Forms include reCAPTCHA and validation to prevent abuse.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Adobe Experience Manager CMS, indicating a robust enterprise-grade platform. It uses modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Slick Slider for UI components, and integrates Google reCAPTCHA for form security. The site is mobile responsive and accessible, with semantic HTML and ARIA roles. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, canonical links, and structured search templates. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and optimized image usage. The technical infrastructure supports scalability and maintainability, though opportunities exist to optimize loading speed and enhance security headers.
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. 74/100Medium29 findingsView report
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