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Security report for uab.edu

The University of Alabama at Birmingham · Education · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) operates a professional and content-rich website representing an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center. The site targets students, researchers, faculty, and the academic community, offering educational programs and research services. The digital infrastructure is built on Joomla CMS with modern frameworks such as Bootstrap and UIkit, and includes analytics and cookie consent mechanisms, indicating a mature digital presence. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and Content Security Policy headers, though additional security headers could enhance protection. The absence of explicit privacy and terms of service policies and missing WHOIS data are notable gaps but do not detract significantly from overall trust given the .edu domain and institutional branding. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing clear privacy and incident response policies, and improving accessibility compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 100 · Low
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. 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"

  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

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

Keep watching uab.edu

This scan found 18 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

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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
40
Email security
80
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
78

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

UAB holds a strong market position as a large educational institution with a focus on research and medical education. Its business model centers on providing higher education and research services to a broad academic audience. The website reflects consistent branding and professional content quality, supporting its credibility. The use of Google Tag Manager and OneTrust indicates active engagement in marketing and privacy compliance. No direct partnerships or subsidiaries were identified from the website content. The institution's digital presence aligns with expectations for a major university, supporting growth and outreach objectives.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with enforced HTTPS and a Content Security Policy header. The presence of cookie consent mechanisms aligns with privacy regulations such as GDPR. However, the lack of additional security headers like HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy represents an opportunity for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. The absence of publicly available security policies or incident response contacts limits transparency. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting comprehensive security headers and publishing clear security governance documents.

Recommendations

  1. Implement additional security headers including HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy to strengthen security posture.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service documents accessible from the homepage.
  3. Develop and publicize an incident response policy and provide dedicated security contact information.
  4. Enhance website accessibility features to meet recognized standards and improve user experience for all users.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate risks from vulnerable libraries.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Description
UAB is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education.
Key services
Higher education, Research, Medical education, Academic programs
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Joomla CMS, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent, Font Awesome, Bootstrap 5, UIkit
Frameworks
Bootstrap, UIkit
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Content Security Policy header present
  • Cookie consent implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Marketing tools
OneTrust Cookie Consent
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website uses Joomla CMS with modern frameworks like Bootstrap and UIkit.
  2. Cookie consent is implemented with OneTrust.
  3. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and tracking.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  5. No privacy policy or terms of service explicitly detected in the provided content.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. No explicit security or incident response contact information found.
  8. Website content is professional and relevant to an educational institution.
  9. No adult or unsafe content detected.
  10. WHOIS data is missing or inaccessible, which is unusual but may be due to .edu domain registry policies.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Joomla CMS, leveraging modern front-end frameworks such as Bootstrap 5 and UIkit for responsive design. It integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics and OneTrust for cookie consent management, reflecting a mature approach to user tracking and privacy compliance. The site uses Font Awesome for iconography and loads scripts asynchronously to optimize performance. While the site demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices, there is room for improvement in accessibility compliance and security header implementation. Hosting details are not explicitly identified, and WHOIS data is unavailable, which limits full infrastructure assessment.
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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