Skip to main content

Is shsu.edu a Scam? Security Check Results - Sam Houston State University

shsu.edu Security Report Summary

shsu.edu received a security score of 71 out of 100 in Guard's comprehensive security analysis, classified as "Moderate Risk". This report covers Sam Houston State University's website security posture. Sam Houston State University operates in the Education industry in United States.

Sam Houston State University is a well-established public university located in Texas, providing a broad range of academic programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and online education. The institution targets students, faculty, and alumni, positioning itself as a regional leader in higher education with a focus on academic excellence and real-world experience. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and clear navigation tailored to its audience. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies such as Font Awesome, Alpine.js, and Google Tag Manager, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and policies could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies including consent mechanisms. WHOIS data is unavailable likely due to .edu domain registration policies, but the domain's legitimacy is supported by consistent branding and institutional indicators. Overall, the website demonstrates a professional, secure, and user-friendly platform suitable for its educational mission.

The security scan identified 26 findings across security headers, SSL/TLS, DNS health, email security, GDPR compliance, and NIS2 compliance analysis modules.

Technologies detected: Font Awesome 6, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Outlook (email links), Gecko Fonts, JavaScript modules, CSS3, HTML5.

About this security scan

Guard performs automated security assessments of websites by analyzing SSL/TLS certificates, HTTP security headers, DNS configuration, email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), GDPR compliance indicators, NIS2 directive compliance, network exposure, and business-context intelligence. Each report provides domain-specific findings, risk scores, and actionable recommendations.

shsu.edu favicon

Is shsu.edu Safe? Security Analysis for Sam Houston State University

https://www.shsu.edu/

Check if shsu.edu is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

EducationUnited Stateslarge
Font Awesome 6Google Tag ManagerMicrosoft Outlook (email links)Gecko FontsJavaScript modules+2 more
Analyzed Completed
71
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

Above Education avg (55)

GDPR-aligned

Data handling

EU

Hosting region

EveryPay

Secure checkout

Instant

Reports delivered

Professional Report

Unlock the full report for shsu.edu

Professional PDF, email delivery, and optional intelligence add-ons. One-time purchase, lifetime access.

Optional add-ons

via BREACH

Your order

Full Report
PDF · email delivery · lifetime access
39.90
Total
Incl. 21% VAT
39.90
Already purchased? Enter unlock code
VisaMastercardApple PayGoogle Payvia EveryPay
SEQ SIA
Reg. No. 40203410806 · VAT LV40203410806

AI Summary

Sam Houston State University is a well-established public university located in Texas, providing a broad range of academic programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and online education. The institution targets students, faculty, and alumni, positioning itself as a regional leader in higher education with a focus on academic excellence and real-world experience. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and clear navigation tailored to its audience. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies such as Font Awesome, Alpine.js, and Google Tag Manager, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and policies could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies including consent mechanisms. WHOIS data is unavailable likely due to .edu domain registration policies, but the domain's legitimacy is supported by consistent branding and institutional indicators. Overall, the website demonstrates a professional, secure, and user-friendly platform suitable for its educational mission.

Detected Technologies

Font Awesome 6Google Tag ManagerMicrosoft Outlook (email links)Gecko FontsJavaScript modulesCSS3HTML5

7 urgent findings need attention

7 high

Continuous monitoring

Keep shsu.edu under constant watch

Guard tracks your live infrastructure daily: certificate expiry, DNS & mail authentication drift, uptime changes, subdomain inventory, and unexpected tracker or content shifts. A full timeline captures every diff so you can prove remediation and spot regressions instantly.

Security drift alerts

Risk score drops, new high-severity issues, and header hardening gaps

Compliance watch

GDPR / NIS2 posture changes with governance evidence snapshots

Infrastructure surface

Unexpected open services, SSL expiry, DNS & email authentication changes

Content & tracker intelligence

Marketing tech shifts, analytics drift, and AI recommendation updates

25 €
per month · billed securely via EveryPay
Less than 1 € / day — cheaper than a single incident response hour

Cancel anytime. Alerts sent to the contacts you choose. Unlock the full report to view historical timelines and alerts.

Purchase to access the monitoring timeline, JSON diffs, alert history, and PDF export for shsu.edu.

Security Headers

3 findings

70/100

GDPR Compliance

3 findings

68/100

NIS2 Compliance

8 findings

17/100

Email Security

5 findings

70/100

🧠AI Business Intelligence

Technology stack, business insights, and market analysis powered by AI.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

The university operates in the education sector, serving a large audience including prospective and current students, faculty, and alumni. Its business model is based on providing educational services and research opportunities. The site links to partner domains such as the official athletics site, indicating a broad ecosystem of related services. The use of multiple marketing and analytics tools suggests active engagement in digital outreach and student recruitment. The institution benefits from strong trust indicators including a .edu domain, comprehensive content, and consistent branding. Growth opportunities may include enhanced security transparency and expanded incident response communication.

Extracted Contact Information

Marketing Intelligence Data

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website maintains a good security posture with HTTPS enabled and no evident exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is publicly available, which could limit transparency and responsiveness to security incidents. The use of third-party tracking and advertising services is balanced with privacy compliance measures. Overall, the security maturity is moderate to good but could be enhanced by publishing security policies and adopting additional HTTP security headers.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Implement and explicitly configure Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options headers to strengthen browser security.

Observations

Comprehensive website and business-context analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Sam Houston State University

Description:

Sam Houston State University, located in Texas, empowers students through academic excellence, innovation and real-world experiences that prepare them for success.

Key Services:
Academic programsOnline educationGraduate studiesResearchStudent support services
Content Quality:

excellent

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
Font Awesome 6Google Tag ManagerMicrosoft Outlook (email links)Gecko FontsJavaScript modulesCSS3HTML5
Frameworks:
Alpine.js (x-data, x-bind usage)
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

good

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
80/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No visible sensitive data exposure
  • Use of secure cookies (implied)
  • No inline scripts detected

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsMicrosoft ClarityFacebook Pixel
Tracking Level:moderate
Privacy Compliance:good

Advertising & Marketing

Ad Networks:
Google DoubleClick
Tracking Pixels:
Microsoft ClarityFacebook Pixel
Marketing Tools:
Cookie Script
Transparency Level:basic

Website Quality Assessment

Design Quality:excellent
User Experience:excellent
Content Relevance:excellent
Navigation Clarity:excellent
Professionalism:excellent
Trustworthiness:high

Key Observations

1

Website is a professionally maintained university site with comprehensive academic and support information.

Get this report delivered to your inbox

Receive a summary of the shsu.edu security findings by email. Quick and easy to share with decision makers.

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

70/100
Score

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

68/100
Score

No Cookie Consent Banner found

HIGH

GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

No Data Protection Officer mentioned

LOW

Large organizations may need to designate a DPO under GDPR

Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

MEDIUM

Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

GDPR Compliance Analysis

Privacy Policy85% confidence
Cookie Policy85% confidence
Contact Information Found90% confidence
phone

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

17/100
Score

No information security framework found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity and information security measures

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure

No security policy documentation found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity governance and risk management

No incident response procedures found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented incident response and business continuity plans

No business continuity planning found

MEDIUM

NIS2 emphasizes operational resilience and business continuity

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts

Need this report as a PDF?

Download the complete shsu.edu security analysis as a professional PDF. Share it with your team, clients, or stakeholders.

📧Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation and email security assessment.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

70/100
Score

Complex SPF record

LOW

Too many include statements can cause lookup limits

DMARC not enforcing

MEDIUM

DMARC policy is set to "none"

No BIMI Record

LOW

BIMI displays brand logos in email clients

No MTA-STS Policy

MEDIUM

MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

No TLS-RPT Record

LOW

TLS-RPT provides reporting for email TLS issues

SPF
Sender Policy Framework
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication
MX Records
Mail Exchange Records
BIMI
Brand Indicators
MTA-STS
Mail Transfer Agent Security
TLS-RPT
TLS Reporting
DNSSEC
DNS Security
SPF Details
Record:
v=spf1 a:spf.shsu.edu include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:_spf.qualtrics.com include:outboundmail.convio.net include:mh.blackboard.com include:relay01.evenue.net ip4:209.143.65.64/26 ip4:208.185.229.0/24 ip4:208.185.235.0/24 ip4:66.195.143.26/26 ip4:8.12.72.20/26 ip4:35.80.141.6 ip4:44.229.121.55 ip4:148.59.100.16/28 -all
DNS Lookups:6/10
Policy:-all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:k2(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:selector2(1296-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:none
Aggregate Reports:[email protected]
Forensic Reports:[email protected]

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

74/100
Score

Weak Protocols Supported

HIGH

Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

OCSP Stapling Not Enabled

LOW

OCSP stapling improves performance and privacy

Certificate Transparency Not Implemented

LOW

Certificate is not logged in Certificate Transparency logs

HSTS Missing includeSubDomains

LOW

HSTS header does not include subdomains

Protocol Support

TLSv1.3TLSv1.2TLSv1.1

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

85/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

DMARC Policy Set to None

LOW

DMARC is configured but not enforcing any policy

Domain Registration Details

Expiry Risk
low(362 days)

DNS Records

A Records:162.252.213.97
Name Servers:
ns.shsu.eduDNS only
ns2.shsu.eduDNS only
ns3.shsu.eduDNS only
MX Records:
0: shsu-edu.mail.protection.outlook.com
SOA:Serial: 4303, TTL: 3600s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Enabled(Algorithm: 8)

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:24ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 a:spf.shsu.edu include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:_spf.qualtrics.com include:outboundmail.convio.net include:mh.blackboard.com include:relay01.evenue.net ip4:209.143.65.64/26 ip4:208.185.229.0/24 ip4:208.185.235.0/24 ip4:66.195.143.26/26 ip4:8.12.72.20/26 ip4:35.80.141.6 ip4:44.229.121.55 ip4:148.59.100.16/28 -all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports

How does shsu.edu compare?

See how shsu.edu stacks up against similar websites in the same industry.

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website uses a modern tech stack including Font Awesome 6 for icons, Alpine.js for interactivity, and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing integration. The site is built with modular JavaScript and CSS, supporting good performance and mobile responsiveness. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, contributing to a positive user experience. The absence of a detected CMS suggests a custom or proprietary platform. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in script loading and caching. Hosting details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the university's digital needs effectively but could benefit from enhanced security header implementation and performance tuning.
Professional Report

Download the shsu.edu report as PDF

Get the complete analysis in a shareable PDF format, delivered instantly to your email with lifetime access.

Optional add-ons

via BREACH

Your order

Full Report
PDF · email delivery · lifetime access
39.90
Total
Incl. 21% VAT
39.90
Already purchased? Enter unlock code
VisaMastercardApple PayGoogle Payvia EveryPay
SEQ SIA
Reg. No. 40203410806 · VAT LV40203410806

Scan your own website

Liked the shsu.edu report? Run the same comprehensive security analysis on your domain — free, instant, and no sign-up required.

Or browse our directory of >10,000 scanned websites.

⭐ Verified Community Reviews

What others say about shsu.edu

Share your experience to help others make informed decisions. We verify every review by email and publish it once our moderation team approves it.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

out of 5

0 reviews published

Loading reviews…

How did we do?

Your feedback directly shapes our roadmap. Rate the quality of this report, leave an optional comment, and let us know if you want our security specialists to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.

Analyze Another Website