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Security report for shadowserver.org

The Shadowserver Foundation · Non-profit · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Shadowserver Foundation is a well-established nonprofit organization dedicated to improving Internet security globally through free, actionable cyber threat intelligence and remediation reporting. With a 20-year history, it serves a diverse audience including network providers, national governments, law enforcement, and industry sectors. The foundation operates on a sponsorship and donation-based model, emphasizing altruistic public benefit. Technically, the website is built on a modern WordPress platform with standard security and privacy features such as HTTPS, Google reCAPTCHA, and GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is strong with encrypted communications and secure form handling, though it lacks some advanced security headers and a dedicated security policy page. WHOIS data is unavailable, which slightly reduces domain trustworthiness, but the organization's transparency, social media presence, and public benefit mission support its legitimacy. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-positioned in the nonprofit cybersecurity sector.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of shadowserver.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

6 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 shadowserver.org

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.

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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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
77
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
71

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

Shadowserver holds a leading market position as the largest free provider of cyber threat intelligence, leveraging extensive data collection and analysis capabilities. Its business model relies on grants, sponsorships, and donations, focusing on public benefit rather than commercial gain. The foundation's partnerships with governments, law enforcement, and industry sectors enhance its influence and operational reach. The website content and structure reflect a mature organization with clear messaging and strong branding consistency. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a controlled communication approach, primarily via web forms. The foundation's GitHub presence and active social media channels indicate engagement with the cybersecurity community and transparency in operations.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms, demonstrating good baseline security practices. Cookie consent mechanisms indicate GDPR compliance awareness. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency for security researchers and partners. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by publishing dedicated security documentation and implementing additional HTTP security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and trust.
  2. Add HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Create and host a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and communication with security researchers.
  4. Provide direct security contact emails (e.g., security@shadowserver.org) to enable efficient incident reporting and collaboration.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and dependencies to mitigate risks from vulnerable components.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Shadowserver Foundation
Description
The Shadowserver Foundation is a nonprofit security organization working altruistically behind the scenes to make the Internet more secure for everyone.
Key services
Threat data collection, Daily remediation reports, Cybersecurity capacity building, Support to law enforcement, Malware repository and analysis
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.2, Google reCAPTCHA v3, Contact Form 7 plugin, Hardypress plugin, Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Cookie consent banner for GDPR compliance

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

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 no blocking or WAF challenge
  2. Content is rich, professional, and focused on nonprofit cybersecurity mission
  3. Strong emphasis on free threat intelligence and collaboration with governments and law enforcement
  4. Modern WordPress CMS with standard plugins and Google services integration
  5. Cookie consent and GDPR compliance mechanisms implemented
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via web form only
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain registration trust verification
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.2 with plugins including Contact Form 7 and Hardypress, integrating Google Fonts and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. The use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 protects forms from automated abuse. The site demonstrates good mobile responsiveness and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the use of multiple external resources and scripts. The technical stack is modern and widely supported, but hosting provider details are not discernible from the HTML content. There is an opportunity to optimize loading times and enhance security headers to reduce technical risks.
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. 73/100Medium25 findingsView report
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