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Security report for tisnational.gov.au

Department of Home Affairs · Government · Australia

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.tisnational.gov.au is an official Australian Government portal operated by the Department of Home Affairs, providing the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National). It offers language services including free interpreting and translating for people with limited English proficiency and agencies or businesses needing to communicate with non-English speaking clients. The site is well-branded with government logos and multilingual support, targeting a broad audience across Australia. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking, and ReadSpeaker for accessibility. The site is mobile-optimized and features clear navigation and professional design. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS implied but lacks explicit security headers and visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information. Privacy compliance is basic with policies present but no visible cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the domain is legitimate and consistent with government domain registration policies, though WHOIS data is limited due to registry restrictions. The site is safe, professional, and trustworthy, serving an essential government function.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

5 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 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 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 tisnational.gov.au

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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
90
Security headers
20
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
69

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

TIS National operates as a government service under the Department of Home Affairs, positioning itself as the official language service provider in Australia. Its competitive advantage lies in government backing, free services for eligible groups, and comprehensive multilingual support. The business model is service-oriented, funded by the government, targeting individuals with limited English and agencies requiring language assistance. The presence of a dedicated booking and interpreter application subdomain indicates a mature digital service ecosystem. Growth indicators include multilingual content and extensive service offerings. Partnerships appear limited to government-related entities. The website's operations reflect a stable, essential public service with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is used, ensuring encrypted communications. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security reduces defense-in-depth. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The lack of published incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure policies indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. Privacy compliance is partial, with policies present but no active cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but could be enhanced to meet higher standards and compliance requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen site security.
  2. Add a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  3. Publish clear incident response and security policy pages with contact information for security issues.
  4. Introduce a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance contact information visibility on the site to improve user trust and support accessibility.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Department of Home Affairs
Description
The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) is a language service provided by the Department of Home Affairs for people with limited English proficiency and for agencies and businesses that need to communicate with their non-English speaking clients.
Key services
Free Interpreting Service, Free Translating Service, Phone interpreting, Video remote interpreting, On-site interpreting
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, ReadSpeaker webReader, JavaScript, CSS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by canonical URL)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government service portal for language interpreting and translating services.
  2. Content is multilingual and accessible with language selector.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners detected, though policies exist.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  6. Use of Google Analytics and Tag Manager indicates moderate user tracking.
  7. No signs of WAF or content blocking detected.
  8. WHOIS data is limited due to registry policy but consistent with official Australian government domains.
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a modern technology stack with JavaScript, CSS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and ReadSpeaker for accessibility. The site is mobile responsive and well-structured with clear navigation menus and multilingual support. Performance is moderate, with deferred script loading and responsive images. No CMS or hosting provider details were explicitly detected. The site lacks some advanced SEO meta tags and structured data but maintains good basic SEO practices. Technical debt appears low, though opportunities exist to improve security headers and privacy compliance mechanisms. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional government service portal.
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. 66/100Medium32 findingsView report
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