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Security report for sios-svalbard.org

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System · Government · Norway

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

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

SIOS (Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System) is an established international research infrastructure focused on long-term Earth system science measurements in the Svalbard region. The organization operates a mature website providing access to data portals, research infrastructure information, and community resources targeting scientists and researchers in Arctic studies. The website is built on Drupal 10 with modern frontend libraries, offering a good user experience and clear navigation. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support significantly undermines the security posture, exposing users to potential risks. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant, reflecting attention to regulatory requirements. Contact information is clearly provided, enhancing business credibility. Overall, the site is functional and professional but requires urgent security improvements to protect users and data.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching sios-svalbard.org

This scan found 19 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
50
Security headers
65
Email security
65
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
64

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

SIOS operates as a non-profit government-related research consortium with a focus on Arctic Earth system science. Its business model centers on providing access to research infrastructure, data management, and scientific collaboration. The organization has a stable domain registration with low expiry risk and consistent registrant information. The website supports multiple services including data portals, training, logistics, and communication, indicating a comprehensive service offering for its target audience. Social media presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube supports outreach and community engagement. The lack of terms of service and security policy pages suggests areas for improvement in transparency and governance documentation.

Security posture

The website currently lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support any TLS protocols, resulting in unencrypted HTTP traffic. No security headers or advanced security mechanisms such as HSTS or OCSP stapling are implemented. While DNS records show good email security practices with SPF and DMARC policies, the web server configuration exposes users to significant security risks. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is available, limiting transparency in security management. Immediate remediation is recommended to install SSL/TLS certificates and enable HTTPS, along with implementing security headers and best practices to improve the overall security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Install and configure a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3) and disable insecure legacy protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload options.
  4. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  5. Publish clear security policies and incident response contact information to enhance transparency.
  6. Regularly audit and update the Drupal CMS and server software to patch vulnerabilities and improve performance.
  7. Enhance SEO and accessibility features to improve user experience and compliance.
  8. Consider adding terms of service and vulnerability disclosure policies to build trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
SIOS Knowledge Centre
Registration number
918 751 815
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS with frontend technologies including jQuery, FontAwesome, LazySizes for image loading, and JS-Cookie for cookie management. The site is hosted on an IP address associated with hyp.net DNS servers. Performance is moderate with a page load time of approximately 5.3 seconds and a page size of about 216 KB. Mobile optimization is good, and navigation is clear and consistent. However, the lack of HTTPS and security headers represents a critical technical debt. The site uses canonical and viewport meta tags but lacks Open Graph or JSON-LD structured data for enhanced SEO. The absence of analytics tools suggests minimal user tracking, aligning with privacy compliance. Overall, the technical infrastructure is functional but requires security and SEO enhancements.
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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