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Security report for ufrj.br

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro · Education · Brazil

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) is a prestigious public university in Brazil with a long history dating back to the 19th century. It is recognized as one of the top universities in Brazil and Latin America, offering a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as extensive research and extension activities. The university maintains strong international partnerships and exchange programs, targeting students, researchers, and academic collaborators worldwide. The website reflects a professional academic institution with clear branding and comprehensive content about its offerings and history. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern web technologies including jQuery, Font Awesome, and Google Analytics for tracking. It incorporates accessibility features such as the VLibras widget for sign language translation. The site is mobile-optimized and performs moderately well, with good SEO and accessibility standards. However, there is room for improvement in security headers and explicit privacy and cookie policies. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration and does not expose sensitive data. WHOIS data is transparent and consistent with the university's identity, enhancing trustworthiness. Incident response contacts are provided in WHOIS, but the website lacks a dedicated security policy or vulnerability disclosure page. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced with additional headers and policies. The overall risk assessment is low, with no signs of malicious activity or suspicious content. Strategic recommendations include publishing clear privacy and cookie policies, implementing security headers, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure program to further strengthen trust and compliance.

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

7 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 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 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 ufrj.br

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
62
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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

UFRJ holds a strong market position as a leading public university in Brazil and Latin America, with a reputation for excellence in education and research. Its business model is focused on public higher education and research services, supported by government funding and partnerships. The university targets students, academics, and international partners, leveraging over 200 global institutional collaborations. Revenue streams are primarily from public funding and tuition for certain programs. The partnership ecosystem includes national and multinational enterprises, enhancing research and practical applications. Growth indicators include international rankings and expanding exchange programs. The website supports these operations by providing detailed academic information and facilitating international student engagement.

Security posture

The security maturity level of UFRJ's website is moderate to good. HTTPS is enforced with a strong SSL certificate, and no sensitive data is exposed in the HTML. WHOIS data includes abuse and security contacts, indicating readiness for incident response. However, the absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options reduces the overall security posture. There is no visible vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file, which limits transparency for security researchers. Privacy compliance is minimal with no explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the main page. The site uses Google Analytics, which requires clear user consent to comply with GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the site is secure but would benefit from enhanced security controls and compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve privacy compliance.
  2. Implement standard security headers including Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide explicit contact information for a Data Protection Officer or privacy contact on the website.
  5. Enhance incident response information and security awareness content to build trust with users and partners.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Description
UFRJ is a leading Brazilian public university focused on teaching, research, and extension activities with a rich history dating back to the 19th century. It is ranked 3rd best in Brazil and 7th in Latin America. The university offers undergraduate, master’s, and PhD programs, and maintains extensive international partnerships.
Key services
Undergraduate education, Graduate education (Master’s and PhD), Research and extension programs, International exchange programs
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Font Awesome, Google Analytics, VLibras accessibility widget
Frameworks
Gutenberg (WordPress block editor)
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of official WHOIS contacts for abuse and security

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on the main page.
  3. WHOIS data is transparent and matches the institution.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and accessibility tools.
  5. No security headers detected; room for improvement.
  6. Google Analytics is used for tracking.
  7. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using Gutenberg blocks, jQuery, and Font Awesome for UI elements. It integrates Google Analytics for visitor tracking and VLibras for accessibility in Brazilian Sign Language. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO meta tags and Open Graph data for social sharing. Performance is moderate, with external CDN usage for scripts and styles. There is no indication of outdated or vulnerable libraries. The technical infrastructure supports a professional academic website but lacks advanced security headers and explicit privacy controls, which are important for compliance and protection. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified from the data.
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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