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Security report for svph.ie

St. Vincent's Private Hospital · Healthcare · Ireland

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

St. Vincent's Private Hospital is a leading private healthcare provider based in Dublin, Ireland, recognized as the largest acute private hospital in the city. The hospital offers a wide range of specialist medical services including cancer care, cardiology, gastroenterology, and orthopaedics, supported by a large number of consultants. The website targets patients, visitors, and healthcare professionals, providing comprehensive information and easy navigation tailored to these groups. The hospital operates under the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group umbrella, reinforcing its market position and credibility. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including responsive design, Typekit fonts, and JavaScript polyfills to ensure broad compatibility and good user experience. The content is well-structured with clear navigation and search functionalities. Cookie consent and privacy mechanisms are robust, indicating a mature approach to privacy compliance. Analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Hotjar are used responsibly with user consent. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and includes CSRF tokens in forms, enhancing security posture. However, explicit security headers are not detected, and no dedicated security or incident response policies are published, representing areas for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or blocking mechanisms were detected, and WHOIS data confirms the legitimacy and consistency of the domain registration. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, security awareness, and compliance with privacy regulations, making it a trustworthy digital presence for a major healthcare institution.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
63/ 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. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  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 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';…

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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
0
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
63
Average
60

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 hospital holds a strong market position as the largest private acute hospital in Dublin, serving a broad spectrum of healthcare needs. Its business model focuses on providing specialist medical services through a large consultant network. The website supports multiple user segments including patients, visitors, and healthcare professionals, indicating a diversified target audience. The presence of detailed career pages and educational webinars suggests ongoing investment in workforce development and professional engagement. Partnerships are indicated with the parent healthcare group and external service providers such as the website developer Kooba. The hospital’s digital presence is mature, supporting growth and patient engagement through comprehensive online resources.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate to good security posture with HTTPS enforced and CSRF protections in place. Cookie consent is managed via a reputable third-party solution (OneTrust), supporting GDPR compliance. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options is a gap. No public security policy or incident response contact details are found, which could hinder transparency and responsiveness in case of security incidents. The use of third-party scripts introduces potential risk vectors that should be regularly audited. Overall, the security maturity is adequate for the healthcare sector but could be enhanced by publishing formal security policies and implementing additional HTTP security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a formal security policy and incident response plan with clear contact channels.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to improve defense in depth.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance transparency by providing a dedicated data protection officer contact and detailed data retention policies.
  5. Continue to monitor and improve cookie consent mechanisms to maintain GDPR compliance and user trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
St. Vincent's Private Hospital
Registration number
338585
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
St. Vincent's Private Hospital
Description
St Vincent’s Private Hospital is the single, biggest acute private hospital in Dublin offering the highest number of consultants and the widest range of specialist care in Ireland’s only integrated multi-hospital campus.
Key services
Cancer care, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Gynaecology, Liver, Pancreas and Biliary Surgery, Obesity and Bariatric Surgery, Orthopaedics, Radiology
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, Typekit Fonts, Picturefill polyfill
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (canonical link uses https)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • CSRF tokens present in forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Hotjar
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy mechanisms are implemented.
  3. Multiple contact points and detailed navigation for different user groups.
  4. No signs of blocking or WAF interference.
  5. Use of modern web fonts and responsive design.
  6. Presence of tracking and analytics scripts with consent categories.
  7. No exposed sensitive data or obvious security misconfigurations detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a CMS platform likely ExpressionEngine, indicated by form tokens and ACT parameters. It uses modern front-end technologies including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Typekit fonts for typography. Responsive design is implemented with media queries and picture elements for adaptive images. Performance is moderate with video backgrounds and multiple external scripts, but no major bottlenecks detected. SEO is supported by canonical links, meta descriptions, and structured navigation. Accessibility features such as ARIA labels and keyboard navigation are present. Hosting details are not explicit, but the domain uses HTTPS with a valid certificate. Opportunities exist to optimize performance further by reducing third-party script load and enhancing caching strategies.
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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