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Security report for socialsecurity.gov

U.S. Social Security Administration · Government · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.ssa.gov is the official online presence of the U.S. Social Security Administration, a federal government agency responsible for administering Social Security programs including retirement, disability, and Medicare benefits. The site offers a comprehensive range of services such as benefits estimation, application processing, status checking, and card replacement, targeting U.S. residents and citizens. It maintains a strong market position as the authoritative source for Social Security information and services. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 CMS and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, New Relic for performance monitoring, and Boomerang for real user monitoring. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring a high-quality user experience. Hosting details are not explicitly stated but are consistent with government hosting standards. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses security monitoring tools, and likely implements standard security headers, although explicit header details are not visible in the provided data. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly presented, with GDPR compliance indicators, reflecting a mature privacy posture. Overall, the site scores highly on content quality, technical implementation, security posture, privacy compliance, and business credibility. The domain is a .gov domain, which is tightly controlled and indicative of legitimacy. WHOIS data is privacy protected as expected for government domains. There are no signs of malicious activity or suspicious content. Strategic recommendations include publishing explicit security headers, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information to further enhance trust and transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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 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 socialsecurity.gov

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  • 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
100
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
74

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 Social Security Administration operates as a critical government entity providing essential social welfare services to millions of Americans. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery. The website supports a broad user base with multilingual content and a variety of online services that streamline access to benefits and information. The agency maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with other government sites such as usa.gov and secure.ssa.gov. The site’s digital maturity is high, reflecting ongoing investments in user experience, accessibility, and analytics. Growth indicators include recent news updates and performance reports. The agency’s operations are transparent and well-structured, supporting its authoritative market position.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of security monitoring tools like New Relic, and likely implementation of standard security headers. No exposed sensitive information or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are in place, supporting compliance with privacy regulations including GDPR. However, explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly visible and could be improved. The absence of these elements slightly reduces the overall security transparency but does not indicate immediate risk. The site’s .gov domain and government affiliation further enhance trustworthiness.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Provide a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance frameworks.
  3. Publish incident response contact information to facilitate responsible vulnerability reporting and incident management.
  4. Consider implementing and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage coordinated vulnerability reporting.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential supply chain risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. Social Security Administration
Description
Official website of the U.S. Social Security Administration providing information and services related to Social Security benefits, Medicare, disability, retirement, and related programs.
Key services
Benefits estimation, Online application for benefits, Benefit status checking, Card replacement, Appointment scheduling, Benefit verification letters, Tax forms, Document uploads
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, New Relic Browser Monitoring, BOOMR (Boomerang) performance monitoring, js-cookie, slick carousel
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure cookie handling
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security monitoring tools (New Relic)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), New Relic Browser Monitoring, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic
Marketing tools
Medallia
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive multilingual support
  3. Strong focus on user services and accessibility
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. Privacy and cookie policies clearly linked and implemented
  7. No WHOIS data available due to .gov domain privacy and registry policies
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, a modern and widely supported content management system. It uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and event tracking, New Relic for performance monitoring, and Boomerang for real user monitoring, indicating a robust technical infrastructure. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, with responsive design and screen reader support. Performance appears fast with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of CDN resources. The site employs multilingual support and structured navigation for usability. No technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected in the provided content.
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. 72/100Medium28 findingsView report
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