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Security report for unibe.ch

Universität Bern · Education · Switzerland

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

Security score

46/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Universität Bern is a well-established Swiss university founded in 1834, offering comprehensive education and research services across multiple faculties and institutes. The website serves as a central portal targeting students, researchers, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders, providing news, events, academic information, and institutional resources. The university maintains a strong market position in the education sector with a reputable brand and international recognition. Technically, the site is built on a Zope CMS with Python backend, using modern JavaScript libraries and good SEO and accessibility practices. However, the website lacks a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which critically impacts its security posture. While some security headers are present, the absence of HTTPS and proper TLS protocols is a major vulnerability. Privacy policies and terms of service are available and comprehensive, but no cookie consent mechanism or incident response contacts are found. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and comply with best practices.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of unibe.ch. 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 unibe.ch

This scan found 17 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

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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
35
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
46

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 Bern operates as a large educational institution with a broad target audience including prospective and current students, researchers, faculty, and alumni. Its business model centers on academic education, research, and lifelong learning programs. The university leverages partnerships with Swiss universities and international institutions, as reflected in linked domains and social media presence. The website content is rich and professionally maintained, supporting the university's reputation and outreach efforts. The presence of multiple language versions and extensive navigation indicates a mature digital presence. However, the lack of direct contact emails and phone numbers on the homepage suggests a preference for centralized contact pages. The university's accreditation and partner logos enhance trust and credibility.

Security posture

The current security posture is weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. Although some security headers like Strict-Transport-Security and X-Content-Type-Options are set, HSTS is not effectively enabled due to missing TLS. No OCSP stapling or session resumption mechanisms are implemented, which could affect performance and security. The malformed CAA DNS records indicate misconfiguration. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response policies are published, limiting transparency and preparedness. The site does not implement cookie consent mechanisms, which may affect GDPR compliance. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhancement of security policies are recommended to improve the security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable TLS 1.2 or higher protocols and disable all insecure SSL/TLS versions.
  3. Activate and configure HSTS with includeSubDomains and preload options to enforce HTTPS.
  4. Correct CAA DNS records to valid entries to control certificate issuance.
  5. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve security and performance.
  6. Publish a security.txt file and incident response contact information to enhance transparency.
  7. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and privacy best practices.
  8. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks.
  9. Enhance contact information visibility with verified company emails and phone numbers.
  10. Maintain consistent monitoring and vulnerability scanning to detect and mitigate risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Universität Bern
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a Zope CMS platform with Python backend, served by nginx web server. Frontend technologies include jQuery and Photoswipe for UI enhancements. The site is multilingual with structured navigation and good accessibility features. SEO meta tags and Open Graph tags are properly implemented. Performance data is unavailable, but the site appears well-structured and mobile-optimized. However, the lack of HTTPS and valid SSL certificate is a critical technical deficiency. DNS records show proper A, AAAA, MX, and NS entries, but DNSSEC is not enabled and CAA records are malformed. The hosting appears to be managed internally by the university or Swiss academic network. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires urgent security upgrades and performance monitoring.
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. 74/100Medium28 findingsView report
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