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Security report for uni-freiburg.de

Universität Freiburg · Education · Germany

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

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Universität Freiburg website represents a large, reputable public university in Germany, offering a wide range of academic programs and research activities. The site targets students, researchers, and the academic community, providing information about study programs, admissions, and university news. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern CSS frameworks like Tailwind, and it is hosted on a regional academic network (BelWü), ensuring reliable infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and employs Piwik (Matomo) for analytics, indicating moderate user tracking. However, it lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies, which are areas for improvement. Overall, the domain registration and DNS setup are consistent with the university's identity, supporting high legitimacy and trustworthiness.

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-freiburg.de

This scan found 27 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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
59

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

The Universität Freiburg holds a strong market position as a major German university with extensive academic offerings and research capabilities. Its business model is centered on public education and research funding. The website reflects a professional digital presence with clear branding and consistent messaging. The target audience includes prospective and current students, academic staff, and the general public interested in higher education. The university leverages partnerships within the academic sector but no explicit partner domains were identified in the website content. Growth indicators include active news updates and knowledge transfer initiatives. The site’s content and structure support its role as a leading educational institution.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of Piwik (Matomo) analytics suggests a preference for privacy-conscious tracking. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces the overall security hardening. There is no public security policy or incident response information, which could hinder transparency and readiness in case of security events. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, limiting external security collaboration. The site would benefit from enhanced security best practices and clearer communication channels for security incidents.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with user consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add standard security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to increase transparency and preparedness.
  4. Create and maintain a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Enhance visibility of official contact information including emails and phone numbers for general and security-related inquiries.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Universität Freiburg
Description
The Universität Freiburg is a large public university in Germany with approximately 24,500 students, 11 faculties, about 240 study programs, and a broad interdisciplinary spectrum with high-quality research and teaching.
Key services
Academic degree programs, Research activities, Knowledge transfer and science communication, Student advisory and support services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Tailwind CSS, JavaScript, Piwik (Matomo) Analytics
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of modern JavaScript and CSS frameworks
  • No exposed sensitive data detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik (Matomo)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik (Matomo)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed university site using WordPress CMS.
  2. Content is rich with academic and institutional information.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided HTML snapshot.
  4. No visible contact emails or phone numbers in the provided content.
  5. Use of Piwik (Matomo) analytics indicates some user tracking.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. No security headers detected in the provided data; potential area for improvement.
  8. Site uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform with Tailwind CSS for styling and JavaScript for interactivity. It uses Piwik (Matomo) for analytics, indicating a preference for open-source tracking solutions. The hosting is provided by BelWü, a regional academic network, which suggests reliable and specialized infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO metadata and structured content. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. The absence of security headers and explicit privacy mechanisms indicates some technical debt in security and compliance areas. Overall, the technical implementation supports a professional and functional academic website but could be improved with enhanced security and privacy features.
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. 44/100High33 findingsView report
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