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Security report for uni-duesseldorf.de

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf · Education · Germany

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

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (HHU) is a well-established public university in Germany, founded in 1965, offering a broad range of educational and research services across multiple faculties. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for students, staff, and the public, providing detailed organizational information, academic resources, and campus services. The university maintains a strong digital presence with official social media channels and a modern, well-structured website built on TYPO3 CMS. Technically, the site uses contemporary web technologies including Bootstrap, jQuery, and FontAwesome, and integrates Matomo for analytics, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no obvious vulnerabilities, though improvements are recommended in security headers and cookie consent compliance. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-aligned with the university's public institution status.

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

7 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

  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 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 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 uni-duesseldorf.de

This scan found 28 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
25
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
58

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-duesseldorf.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2,344
Employees
18
Customers
1,550
Third parties
776
Weak passwords
13%

Latest record dated 2026-05-30 · 68 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-duesseldorf.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –lists.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de2026-05-30
  • –ilias.uni-duesseldorf.de2026-05-27
  • –auas.math.uni-duesseldorf.de2026-05-26
  • –auas.cs.uni-duesseldorf.de2026-05-25
  • –uni-duesseldorf.de2026-05-18

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

HHU holds a significant position in the German higher education sector, targeting students, researchers, and academic staff. Its business model is centered on public education and research funding, with no commercial sales. The university's extensive organizational structure and service offerings indicate a large institution with diverse academic programs. The website's integration with various internal and external academic resources and portals suggests a well-connected ecosystem. The presence of multiple faculties and research centers, along with community engagement initiatives like the Bürgeruniversität, highlights a broad market reach and community focus. The university's digital strategy includes multilingual support and active social media engagement, enhancing its accessibility and outreach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for enhancement. The lack of a published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy may limit transparency and responsiveness in case of security incidents. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy and a designated data protection officer, but the missing cookie consent mechanism is a compliance gap under EU regulations. Overall, the security maturity is moderate to high, with room for procedural and technical improvements to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with EU cookie laws and improve privacy compliance.
  2. Add and configure security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Publish an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and security culture.
  4. Regularly audit third-party libraries and scripts to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance user awareness and training on security and privacy best practices within the university community.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Description
Die Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf ist eine der jüngeren Hochschulen des Landes NRW – gegründet 1965. Seit 1988 trägt die Universität den Namen des großen Sohnes der Stadt.
Key services
Studium und Lehre, Forschung, Weiterbildung, Campusleben, Service-Center, Veranstaltungen
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, jQuery, Bootstrap, FontAwesome, Matomo Analytics
Frameworks
TYPO3
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data detected
  • Use of modern libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a comprehensive official university site with extensive organizational and service information.
  2. Content is primarily in German with English alternate language support.
  3. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content.
  4. Strong presence of official social media channels.
  5. No visible cookie consent banner despite EU regulations.
  6. No explicit security headers detected in provided data.
  7. Use of open source CMS TYPO3 with modern frontend libraries.
  8. No visible vulnerability disclosure or incident response contact pages.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on TYPO3 CMS, a robust and widely used open-source content management system, supported by modern frontend frameworks like Bootstrap and jQuery. The use of FontAwesome provides scalable vector icons, and Matomo analytics indicates a preference for privacy-respecting data collection. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting appears to be managed by academic or research networks, ensuring reliability. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in asset delivery and caching. The technical stack is mature and well-maintained, supporting the university's complex content and service needs effectively.
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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