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Security report for udel.edu

University of Delaware · Education · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The University of Delaware website serves as the official digital presence of a nationally ranked public university offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. The site targets prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the broader community. It highlights the university's academic programs, research initiatives, campus life, and community engagement, positioning itself as a leading educational institution with a strong reputation. Technically, the website leverages a modern tech stack including Adobe Experience Manager CMS, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and multiple analytics and marketing tools. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured, providing a positive user experience. However, some improvements in explicit security header implementation and cookie consent mechanisms could enhance compliance and security posture. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS and integrates standard tracking and marketing scripts responsibly. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of WHOIS data is unusual but likely due to edu domain registry policies. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature security posture with room for incremental improvements. The overall risk is low given the institutional nature of the site, but enhancing privacy compliance and publishing vulnerability disclosure information would strengthen trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

8 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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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 udel.edu

This scan found 25 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
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
64

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 University of Delaware operates as a large public educational institution with a comprehensive portfolio of academic programs and research activities. Its market position is strong nationally, supported by rankings and a broad service offering. The business model focuses on education delivery, research funding, and community services. The website reflects a well-established brand with consistent messaging and multiple channels for engagement. Partnerships with related domains such as graduate admissions and event management support operational efficiency. The university's digital presence indicates strategic investment in technology and marketing to attract and serve its diverse audience.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with HTTPS enforcement and use of reputable analytics and marketing scripts. Security headers are implied but not explicitly confirmed in the HTML, suggesting potential for enhancement. No signs of malware, phishing, or exposed credentials were found. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contacts is a gap in transparency. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but no visible cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from formalized vulnerability disclosure and incident response information.

Recommendations

  1. Implement explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Add a visible cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security or abuse email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve transparency.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
University of Delaware
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Delaware
Description
The University of Delaware is a diverse institution of higher learning, fostering excellence in research. UD has eight colleges, providing outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional education, serving the local, regional, national and international communities.
Key services
Undergraduate education, Graduate education, Professional education, Research and innovation, Campus services and community engagement
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Snapchat Pixel, Siteimprove Analytics, Adobe Helix RUM
Frameworks
Bootstrap (implied by classes and dropdowns)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method
  • Use of modern analytics and tracking scripts with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Siteimprove Analytics, Adobe Helix RUM
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Outbrain
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Snapchat Pixel
Transparency
good

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 branding consistent with a major public university
  3. Comprehensive navigation menus targeting multiple user groups
  4. Multiple official social media links present
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  6. No visible security warnings or errors
  7. No explicit cookie consent mechanism found
  8. WHOIS data unavailable, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious for edu domains
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Adobe Experience Manager CMS, utilizing jQuery and Bootstrap for frontend interactivity and layout. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Snapchat Pixel, and Outbrain advertising. The site is mobile responsive and accessible, with structured navigation and rich multimedia content. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to optimize user experience. The technical infrastructure is modern and well-maintained, though opportunities exist to enhance security headers and privacy compliance mechanisms.
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. 48/100High31 findingsView report
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