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Security report for uccs.edu

University of Colorado Colorado Springs · Education · United States

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) is a large public university providing a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, including online offerings. The institution serves over 11,300 students and has a strong alumni network. The website reflects a mature digital presence with professional design, clear navigation, and comprehensive content tailored to prospective and current students, faculty, and alumni. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 and integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools responsibly. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and anonymized analytics, though some security headers and cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to .edu domain policies, but the site’s legitimacy is supported by consistent branding and official contact information.

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

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 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 uccs.edu

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.

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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
85
Security headers
50
Email security
65
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
72

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

UCCS operates in the education sector as a public university under the Regents of the University of Colorado. It targets students, faculty, staff, and alumni with services including degree programs, admissions support, and campus resources. The university maintains partnerships with various internal and external domains for news, events, and fundraising. The business model is focused on education delivery and community engagement. The site’s content and structure indicate a stable and reputable institution with a strong market position in Colorado.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with HTTPS and anonymized IP tracking in analytics. However, the absence of explicit security headers and a vulnerability disclosure page suggests room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and security policy information are not prominently available, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from additional best practices and compliance features.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Add a visible cookie consent banner or mechanism to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance incident response information and provide dedicated security contact channels to improve transparency and readiness.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to ensure they comply with privacy standards and do not introduce vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Regents of the University of Colorado
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Description
UCCS provides quality education in growing fields within a vibrant atmosphere in Colorado. It offers over 100 degrees and programs from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels.
Key services
Undergraduate and graduate degree programs, Online programs, Campus visits and admissions support, Student support networks
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Microsoft 365, Clarity (Microsoft), CollegeVine embed
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Microsoft Clarity
Tracking pixels
Sitescout, Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
CollegeVine Recruiter
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed university site with extensive content and resources
  2. No signs of malware or phishing
  3. Strong presence of official contact information and social media
  4. Multiple embedded analytics and marketing tools used responsibly
  5. No cookie consent banner detected, potential GDPR compliance gap
  6. No explicit security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to .edu domain policies
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal 10 CMS with modern JavaScript libraries and integrates Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and CollegeVine recruitment tools. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts. The extensive use of external domains for services and resources is well managed. Technical debt appears low, but security header implementation and cookie consent mechanisms are areas for modernization. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified.
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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