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Security report for umassathletics.com

University of Massachusetts Athletics · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The University of Massachusetts Athletics website serves as the official digital platform for the university's sports teams, providing comprehensive information including schedules, rosters, news, ticketing, and fan engagement resources. It targets students, athletes, fans, and the broader sports community, positioning itself as a key resource for collegiate athletics within the education sector. The site is well-branded and consistent with the university's identity, reflecting a large, established institution with a history dating back to 1999 for this domain. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies such as Vue.js and Nuxt.js frameworks, hosted on AWS infrastructure with CDN support for performance optimization. The use of Sidearm Sports CMS indicates a specialized platform for collegiate athletics content management. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although performance is moderate and could benefit from further optimization. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS, employs standard security headers, and integrates a consent management platform for privacy compliance. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and there is no explicit security policy or vulnerability disclosure page, which are areas for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website presents a high level of professionalism and trustworthiness, with strong business credibility and privacy compliance. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing security and incident response policies, and enhancing transparency around vulnerability disclosures to further strengthen security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. 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';…

  3. 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 umassathletics.com

This scan found 24 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
72
Security headers
25
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
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

UMass Athletics operates as a significant division within the University of Massachusetts, focusing on collegiate sports programs. Its market positioning is strong within the NCAA and Atlantic 10 Conference ecosystems, leveraging partnerships with organizations like Learfield for sponsorship and ticketing services. The business model centers on providing sports content, fan engagement, and ticket sales, supported by university funding and sponsorship revenue streams. The target audience includes students, alumni, sports fans, and local communities. Growth indicators include active social media engagement and comprehensive digital content offerings. The partnership ecosystem includes NCAA, Atlantic 10, Hockey East, and ticketing platforms, reflecting a well-integrated sports operations network.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, reducing risks of common web attacks. The integration of a consent management platform aligns with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. However, the absence of DNSSEC and a public security policy or incident response plan indicates gaps in defense-in-depth and transparency. No signs of malware, phishing, or exposed credentials were found. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file limits external security collaboration. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not publicly visible, suggesting room for enhancement in security governance and communication.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Implement a vulnerability disclosure program and publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide explicit security contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  5. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate supply chain risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Massachusetts Athletics
Description
The official athletics website for the University of Massachusetts Minutemen and Minutewomen
Key services
Sports schedules, Team rosters, News and archives, Ticket sales, Athletics department information
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Vue.js, Nuxt.js, AWS DNS, Cloudfront CDN, Sidearm Sports platform, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics
Frameworks
Vue.js, Nuxt.js
Platforms
Sidearm Sports
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with proper labels and ARIA attributes

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Transcend telemetry
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
htlbid.com
Tracking pixels
Transcend telemetry
Marketing tools
Transcend consent management
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official athletics site for University of Massachusetts
  2. Comprehensive sports coverage with schedules, rosters, news
  3. Strong social media presence for teams
  4. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks
  5. Good security posture with HTTPS and security headers
  6. Privacy and cookie policies present and integrated with consent management
  7. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on main navigation or footer
  8. No explicit terms of service or security policy pages found
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt detected
  10. Advertising and tracking scripts present but standard for such sites
Technical notes

Notes

The website's technical infrastructure is modern and robust, utilizing Vue.js and Nuxt.js frameworks for a responsive and dynamic user experience. Hosting on AWS with Cloudfront CDN ensures scalability and availability. The Sidearm Sports CMS is specialized for collegiate athletics, streamlining content management. Performance is moderate, with opportunities to optimize loading times and resource usage. Accessibility features such as ARIA labels and skip links are implemented, enhancing usability. SEO is well addressed through meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts and lack of DNSSEC, which should be addressed to maintain operational security and performance.
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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