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Security report for unesco.org

U.N.E.S.C.O · Government · France

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

52/100

Risk levelMedium

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

UNESCO is a globally recognized United Nations specialized agency dedicated to promoting peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, culture, communication, and information. The organization holds a leading position in its sector, providing normative frameworks, cooperation tools, and knowledge dissemination to member states and global audiences. The website reflects this stature with comprehensive content, consistent branding, and a broad target audience including governments, NGOs, researchers, and the general public. Technically, the website is built on the Drupal CMS platform, leveraging modern web technologies and Google analytics tools. While the site is mobile-optimized and accessible, performance is hindered by slow load times. The hosting infrastructure appears to be managed by UNICC, consistent with the organization's profile. From a security perspective, the site has critical issues including an invalid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, absence of security headers, and no DNSSEC or CAA records. However, email authentication mechanisms like SPF and DMARC are properly configured, and no subdomain takeover vulnerabilities were found. Privacy compliance is strong with clear policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and maintain credibility. Strategic recommendations include obtaining a valid SSL certificate, enabling modern TLS protocols, implementing security headers, and improving site performance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of unesco.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching unesco.org

This scan found 20 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

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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
0
Security headers
45
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
52

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention unesco.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
9,222
Employees
141
Customers
8,591
Third parties
490
Weak passwords
14%

Latest record dated 2026-06-13 · 215 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for unesco.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –connect.unesco.org2026-06-13
  • –sts2.unesco.org2026-06-13
  • –sts.unesco.org2026-06-10
  • –sts.unesco.org2026-06-10
  • –sts2.unesco.org2026-06-10

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

UNESCO operates as an essential international governmental organization with a non-profit business model focused on global education, science, culture, and communication. Its market position is strong due to its UN affiliation and long-standing history. The organization leverages partnerships and global networks to extend its influence. Revenue streams are primarily from member state contributions and donations. The website supports engagement through newsletters, donation portals, and partnership invitations. The organization's digital presence is mature, with extensive content and multi-language support, reflecting a global outreach strategy.

Security posture

The current security posture is moderate to weak. Key strengths include properly configured SPF and DMARC records, absence of known vulnerabilities like subdomain takeover, and no detected malware. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support is a critical vulnerability that exposes users to data interception risks. The absence of security headers and DNSSEC further weakens the security stance. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available, indicating potential gaps in transparency. Overall, the site requires immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhancement of security controls to align with best practices and compliance requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS and secure all communications.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and 1.3) and disable deprecated versions to improve encryption strength.
  3. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Enable DNSSEC and add CAA records to enhance DNS security and certificate issuance control.
  5. Optimize website performance to reduce load times, improving user experience and SEO.
  6. Publish clear security policies and incident response procedures to enhance transparency and trust.
  7. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to avoid vulnerabilities.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS, utilizing Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking. The hosting infrastructure is linked to UNICC, indicating a managed environment suitable for an international organization. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with good SEO practices. However, the invalid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS are significant technical debts. Performance is slow with a load time exceeding 8 seconds, suggesting opportunities for optimization. The site uses multiple external resources and social media integrations, which are well managed but contribute to load time. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires modernization in 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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 75/100Medium27 findingsView report
  2. 75/100Medium28 findingsView report
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