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Security report for tu-dresden.de

Technische Universität Dresden · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) is a large, internationally recognized German university with a strong focus on education, research, and innovation. It serves a diverse audience including students, researchers, cooperation partners, and employees. The university holds the prestigious status of a University of Excellence, reflecting its top-tier research and academic standing in Germany. The website provides comprehensive information about degree programs, research initiatives, innovation support, and international collaborations, positioning TU Dresden as a leading academic institution. Technically, the website is built on the Plone CMS platform, utilizing modern web technologies such as RequireJS, Lottie animations, and Owl Carousel for interactive content. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and performs moderately well. It employs Matomo for analytics, indicating a preference for privacy-conscious tracking. The site uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration, though some security headers are not explicitly detected. From a security perspective, the site demonstrates good practices including HTTPS enforcement and no visible sensitive data exposure. However, it lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms and published security policies or incident response contacts. The WHOIS data and DNS setup align with a legitimate academic institution, supporting the domain's trustworthiness. Overall, TU Dresden's website is professional, secure, and user-friendly, with minor areas for improvement in privacy compliance and security header implementation. The site is safe for general audiences and reflects the university's reputable standing in the education sector.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
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. 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

  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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1
    • High

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 5 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching tu-dresden.de

This scan found 23 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

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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
67
Security headers
75
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
67

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 tu-dresden.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
9,027
Employees
394
Customers
7,167
Third parties
1,466
Weak passwords
10%

Latest record dated 2026-06-13 · 282 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for tu-dresden.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –wlauth.net.tu-dresden.de2026-06-13
  • –wlauth.net.tu-dresden.de2026-06-12
  • –msx.tu-dresden.de2026-06-11
  • –msx.tu-dresden.de2026-06-11
  • –selma.tu-dresden.de2026-06-10

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

TU Dresden operates as a public university in Germany, focusing on higher education, research, and technology transfer. Its market position as a University of Excellence gives it a competitive advantage in attracting top researchers and students globally. The business model revolves around providing academic programs, fostering innovation through start-up support, and maintaining international partnerships. Revenue streams likely include public funding, research grants, and tuition fees. The university targets students, academic researchers, industry partners, and the broader scientific community. Its partnership ecosystem includes cooperation with companies and international institutions, enhancing its research and transfer capabilities. The website content and structure indicate a mature digital presence supporting its strategic goals.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no evident exposure of sensitive information. Use of deferred and asynchronous scripts reduces performance impact and potential attack surface. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options is a minor gap. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are published, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. Cookie consent mechanisms are not detected, which may affect GDPR compliance. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from enhanced header policies and explicit privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR requirements.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen protection.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and continue monitoring performance to maintain excellent user experience.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Technische Universität Dresden
Description
TU Dresden is a large German university with 43,000 people from 125 nations, focused on study, research, and work with strong connections to science, industry, and society.
Key services
Degree programs, Research and transfer, Innovation and start-up support, International partnerships, Student services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Plone CMS, RequireJS, Matomo Analytics, Lottie animations, Owl Carousel
Frameworks
Plone
Platforms
Web platform hosted on HTTPS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of deferred and async scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and multimedia.
  2. Strong institutional branding and consistent messaging.
  3. Good use of modern web technologies and CMS.
  4. No visible security or privacy policy gaps except cookie consent mechanism.
  5. Social media presence is comprehensive and official.
  6. WHOIS data supports legitimacy of domain ownership.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Plone CMS, a robust and secure content management system favored by academic institutions. It uses RequireJS for modular JavaScript loading, Lottie for animations, and Owl Carousel for interactive content sliders. Matomo analytics is employed for privacy-conscious user tracking. The site is served over HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate, ensuring encrypted communications. The HTML is well-structured with appropriate meta tags for SEO and social media integration. Mobile optimization and accessibility are well addressed. Performance is moderate, with deferred loading of scripts to improve page load times. There is room for improvement in security headers and cookie consent implementation to align with best practices.
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. 68/100Medium31 findingsView report
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