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Security report for sozialministerium.at

Bundesministerium für Arbeit, Soziales, Gesundheit, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz · Government · Austria

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website sozialministerium.at serves as the official online presence of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care, and Consumer Protection. It provides comprehensive information and services related to social policies, health initiatives, labor market data, consumer protection, and public welfare programs. The site targets Austrian citizens, professionals, media, and stakeholders interested in social and health matters. It is positioned as a key government portal with extensive content and official communications. Technically, the site is built on a government content management system (BCMS) hosted by the Austrian Bundesrechenzentrum. It employs modern web technologies including Bootstrap for responsive design and integrates analytics tools such as etracker and Siteimprove. Despite rich content and good accessibility features, the site suffers from critical security shortcomings, notably the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which severely impacts its security posture. Security-wise, while DNS records for SPF and DMARC are properly configured, the lack of HTTPS and security headers exposes the site to risks and undermines user trust. The cookie consent mechanism and privacy policy are well implemented, indicating good privacy compliance. However, the missing SSL certificate is a critical vulnerability that must be addressed urgently. Overall, the site is a professionally managed government portal with excellent content and user experience but requires immediate security improvements to protect user data and maintain trust. Strategic recommendations include implementing HTTPS, enabling modern TLS protocols, and adding security headers to enhance the security posture.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of sozialministerium.at. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

3 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

    • 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 sozialministerium.at

This scan found 13 issues across 5 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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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
85
Email security
50
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
Average
72

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 ministry operates as a central government entity responsible for labor, social affairs, health, care, and consumer protection in Austria. Its business model is public service and policy implementation, funded by the government. The website acts as a communication and service platform, offering news, legal information, campaigns, and contact channels. The ministry holds a strong market position as the authoritative source for social and health policies in Austria. Partnerships with official service providers for forms and whistleblowing platforms enhance its service ecosystem. The presence of multiple certifications and awards reflects its commitment to quality and social responsibility. Growth indicators include active campaigns and extensive archival content, supporting transparency and citizen engagement.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of HTTPS and valid SSL certificates, which is a critical issue for any modern website, especially a government portal. DNS-based email security measures like SPF and DMARC are correctly configured, reducing email spoofing risks. However, the lack of security headers and outdated or missing TLS protocols increases vulnerability to attacks such as man-in-the-middle and downgrade attacks. No incident response or security policy pages were found, indicating potential gaps in security governance and transparency. The cookie consent mechanism and privacy policy demonstrate awareness of privacy regulations, but overall security practices need significant enhancement to meet GDPR and NIS2 standards. Immediate remediation is required to secure communications and protect user data.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable all insecure protocols.
  3. Configure HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  4. Publish a clear security policy and incident response information to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize vulnerabilities.
  6. Enhance accessibility and SEO by maintaining ARIA roles and meta tags.
  7. Continue to maintain comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with user consent mechanisms.
  8. Consider implementing security.txt file for vulnerability disclosure and contact information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a government CMS platform (BCMS) hosted by the Austrian Bundesrechenzentrum, ensuring centralized management and hosting. It uses Bootstrap for responsive design and integrates analytics services such as etracker and Siteimprove for performance and user behavior tracking. The site has a large content base with extensive navigation and categorized information, supporting a good user experience. However, the page load time is relatively slow (~8.2 seconds) and the page size is large (~341 KB), which could be optimized. The absence of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols is a major technical risk. The DNS configuration is solid with valid SPF and DMARC records. The site includes accessibility features like skip links and ARIA labels, indicating good compliance with accessibility standards. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable but requires security upgrades and performance optimizations.
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. 69/100Medium28 findingsView report
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