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Security report for uni-bonn.de

Universität Bonn · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Universität Bonn is a leading German university recognized for its excellence in research and education. The website reflects a strong academic focus, targeting students, researchers, and international partners. It offers comprehensive information about study programs, research profiles, and university events, positioning itself as a major institution in the German higher education landscape. Technically, the site is built on the Plone CMS platform, uses modern web technologies, and integrates Matomo analytics for user tracking, indicating a commitment to privacy and data control. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced, but lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy and cookie policies, which are areas for improvement. Overall, the site is professional, well-branded, and trustworthy, with no signs of malicious or adult content.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

5 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 384-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching uni-bonn.de

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.

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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
62
Security headers
55
Email security
73
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
65

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 uni-bonn.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
8,679
Employees
244
Customers
6,807
Third parties
1,628
Weak passwords
10%

Latest record dated 2026-06-19 · 281 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 uni-bonn.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –ecampus.uni-bonn.de2026-06-19
  • –uni-bonn.de2026-06-10
  • –shibboleth.uni-bonn.de2026-06-09
  • –mail.uni-bonn.de2026-06-06
  • –mail.uni-bonn.de2026-06-06

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

Universität Bonn operates as a public educational institution with a focus on research excellence and international collaboration. Its market position is strong within Germany and internationally, supported by prestigious awards and research groups. The business model centers on academic services, research funding, and knowledge transfer. The website content and structure support a broad target audience including students, academics, and partners. The university leverages partnerships and maintains a consistent brand image. Growth indicators include active news, events, and strategic initiatives like the Exzellenzstrategie. The technical infrastructure supports scalability and modern web standards.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data in the HTML. The use of Matomo analytics suggests privacy-conscious tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers (e.g., CSP, HSTS) and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts indicate gaps in security transparency and defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files were found, limiting external reporting channels. The site should enhance its security framework documentation and implement recommended HTTP headers to improve resilience against common web attacks.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement and configure HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a security.txt file or dedicated vulnerability disclosure page to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear contact information for security incidents, including dedicated security or abuse email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Universität Bonn
Description
Die Exzellenzuniversität Bonn ist eine der erfolgreichsten Universitäten in Deutschland. Studieren und forschen Sie an eine der größten und forschungsstärksten Universitäten in Deutschland.
Key services
Studium, Forschung, Lehre, Internationaler Austausch, Transfer, Fortbildung
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, MathJax
Frameworks
Plone 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 Matomo analytics with custom domain

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional university site with extensive academic content.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided content.
  3. No visible contact emails or phone numbers in the main content.
  4. Use of Plone CMS and Matomo analytics indicates modern and privacy-conscious technology choices.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  6. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  7. Content is in German with English alternate language links.
  8. Strong branding and consistent design.
  9. Events and news sections are active and updated.
  10. No WAF or blocking detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Plone CMS, a robust and secure content management system favored by academic institutions. It uses modern JavaScript libraries and CSS frameworks, with MathJax for rendering mathematical content. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting appears to be managed within the German university network, ensuring reliable infrastructure. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of analytics scripts. Opportunities exist to improve technical SEO and security header implementation to enhance overall site robustness.
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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