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Security report for simpk.de

Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 10 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

51/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz is Germany's largest non-university research institution dedicated to musicology, encompassing various sub-disciplines such as historical musicology, instrumentology, and acoustic research. It operates a museum, library, and offers educational programs, publications, and events targeting researchers, students, and the general public interested in music and cultural heritage. The website reflects a well-established government cultural institution with consistent branding and a clear mission. Technically, the website is built on TYPO3 CMS, employs Matomo for analytics, and is hosted likely by German cultural institutions, ensuring a stable and secure infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though performance is moderate. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, but lacks some advanced security headers and explicit incident response information. Privacy compliance is partially met with a comprehensive privacy policy in German, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a notable gap given the use of tracking technologies. Contact information is available primarily via forms and dedicated pages, with no direct emails or phone numbers prominently displayed. Social media presence is official and supports outreach. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and serves its audience well, but could improve in privacy compliance and security transparency to enhance user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

  2. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching simpk.de

This scan found 29 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

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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
47
Security headers
30
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
51

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 simpk.de, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for simpk.de right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The institute holds a strong market position as a leading government cultural research entity in Germany, focusing on musicology and museum curation. Its business model revolves around research, public education, and cultural preservation, supported by government funding. The target audience includes academics, cultural professionals, and museum visitors. The organization benefits from partnerships with government bodies and cultural networks, enhancing its credibility and reach. Revenue streams likely include government grants, museum ticket sales, publications, and educational programs. The website supports these functions with clear navigation, event promotion, and resource access, indicating a mature digital presence aligned with institutional goals.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, absence of exposed sensitive data, and use of privacy-respecting analytics (Matomo with disabled cookies). However, it lacks explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and does not publish a security policy or incident response contacts, which are best practices for transparency and preparedness. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a compliance risk under GDPR. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional headers, formal policies, and user consent mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a GDPR-compliant cookie consent banner/mechanism to inform users and obtain consent for tracking.
  2. Add security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen browser security.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Consider creating and hosting a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure policy to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly review and update privacy and security practices to maintain compliance with evolving regulations and standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Description
Das Staatliche Institut für Musikforschung ist die größte außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtung der Musikwissenschaft in Deutschland. Es deckt verschiedene Teildisziplinen ab, darunter Historische Musikwissenschaft, Instrumentenkunde, Musikwissenschaftliche Dokumentation, Tonträgerforschung, Akustik und musikalische Wahrnehmungsforschung.
Key services
Musikinstrumenten-Museum Betrieb, Forschung und Konservierung, Bibliotheksdienste, Veranstaltungen und Führungen, Publikationen, Bildung und Vermittlung
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Matomo Analytics, JavaScript, CSS
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected
  • Forms use GET method with no sensitive input fields

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional government cultural research institute site.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with multilingual support.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. No explicit privacy or security policy beyond GDPR privacy policy detected.
  5. No cookie consent mechanism present despite use of analytics.
  6. No visible contact emails or phone numbers in main HTML; contact via forms and pages.
  7. Social media presence is official and consistent with institutional branding.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the TYPO3 CMS platform, a robust and widely used open-source content management system suitable for institutional websites. It uses Matomo analytics configured to disable cookies, reflecting privacy-conscious data collection. The site loads CSS and JavaScript assets efficiently, with some compression (gzip) evident. Hosting appears to be managed by German cultural institutions, ensuring reliable infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with semantic HTML and ARIA landmarks. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. No outdated or vulnerable libraries were detected. The technical setup supports the business goals effectively but could benefit from enhanced security headers and cookie consent integration.
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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