State of the Apes is a non-profit publication initiative under the Arcus Foundation, focusing on the conservation of great apes and gibbons by examining the impact of human development activities. The website serves as a resource hub offering downloadable chapters, video interviews, and research reports targeting policymakers, academics, NGOs, and conservation experts. The platform is well-branded, professionally designed, and provides clear navigation and content relevant to its mission.
Technically, the website is built on WordPress with Bootstrap and jQuery, enhanced by SEO plugins and integrated with marketing and analytics tools such as HubSpot Forms, Google Tag Manager, and LinkedIn Insight. The site is mobile-optimized and performs moderately well, though there is room for improvement in accessibility and security headers.
From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security headers and publicly available security or incident response policies. The absence of WHOIS domain registration data is a notable concern, potentially impacting trustworthiness despite the reputable association with the Arcus Foundation.
Overall, the website presents a low-risk profile with strong content and business credibility but would benefit from enhanced transparency in domain registration and security practices to improve trust and compliance.
Scanned ·
NIS2 and GDPR posture
GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7
NIS2 Art. 21(2)
a(a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
b(b) Incident handling: One indicator
c(c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
d(d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
e(e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
f(f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
g(g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
h(h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
i(i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
j(j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside
Partly checked
One indicator
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
7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.
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
High
No SPF record found
SPF helps prevent email spoofing
What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"
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"
This scan found 26 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
Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.
Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.
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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
61
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 stateoftheapes.com, from OffSeq Breach.
No leaked records found
Breach holds no records for stateoftheapes.com right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.
Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.
Business context
Business profile
The State of the Apes website positions itself as a niche leader in conservation publications related to great apes and gibbons, supported by the Arcus Foundation. Its business model revolves around educational content dissemination and advocacy rather than commercial revenue. The target audience includes policymakers, researchers, NGOs, and conservationists, indicating a specialized market segment. The site demonstrates consistent branding and a professional online presence, leveraging partnerships and social media to extend reach. Growth indicators include multiple volumes and multimedia content, though direct revenue streams are not evident. The partnership with Arcus Foundation enhances credibility and resource access.
Security posture
The website exhibits a moderate to good security posture with mandatory HTTPS and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The integration of third-party analytics and marketing tools is standard but requires ongoing monitoring for vulnerabilities. The lack of security headers such as Content Security Policy and HSTS reduces defense-in-depth. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which could hinder rapid response to security events. The missing WHOIS data is a significant gap in domain legitimacy verification, warranting further investigation. Overall, the site is secure for general use but should enhance transparency and technical security controls.
Recommendations
Implement and publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response plan on the website.
Add and enforce security headers including Content Security Policy, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
Investigate and resolve the missing WHOIS domain registration data to improve domain legitimacy and trust.
Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all visitors.
Site observations
Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.
Business
Company
Arcus Foundation
Description
A publication series examining the interrelated ways that human development activities impact the conservation of great apes and gibbons.
Key services
Publication series on ape conservation, Research reports, Video interviews, Educational resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent
Technology
Stack
WordPress, Bootstrap, jQuery, Yoast SEO, HubSpot Forms, Google Tag Manager, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Social Media Feather plugin
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good
Security
Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
HTTPS enforced
No exposed sensitive data in HTML
Use of Google Tag Manager and LinkedIn Insight for analytics
Analytics and tracking
Services
HubSpot Analytics, Google Tag Manager, LinkedIn Insight
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good
Advertising
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight, HubSpot Analytics, ShareThis
Marketing tools
HubSpot Forms, ShareThis social sharing
Transparency
basic
Site quality
Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high
Key observations
Website is a professionally maintained non-profit publication platform focused on great ape conservation.
Content is rich with multiple volumes and resources available.
Uses modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
Includes social media integration and email subscription forms.
No signs of malicious or adult content.
WHOIS data is missing, which is a concern for domain legitimacy verification.
Technical notes
Notes
The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using Bootstrap for responsive design and jQuery for interactivity. SEO is managed via Yoast SEO plugin, and marketing integrations include HubSpot Forms and Google Tag Manager. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, particularly in script loading and caching. Accessibility is basic, with potential improvements in ARIA roles and keyboard navigation. The technical stack is standard for non-profit informational sites, providing a balance of functionality and ease of maintenance. Hosting details are not explicitly identified, and no advanced frameworks beyond Bootstrap are detected.
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.
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