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Security report for uottawa.ca

University of Ottawa · Education · Canada

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

The University of Ottawa operates a comprehensive and professionally designed website serving a large audience including prospective and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors. The site offers extensive information on academic programs, research, campus life, and support services, reflecting its position as a major Canadian educational institution. The bilingual nature and clear navigation enhance accessibility and user experience. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web technologies and integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and digital maturity.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 100 · Medium
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

3 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.

    • 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-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 uottawa.ca

This scan found 19 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
65
Security headers
75
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
77

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 University of Ottawa is positioned as a leading Canadian university with a broad portfolio of academic and research offerings. Its business model focuses on education and community engagement, targeting students at various levels and stakeholders such as alumni and donors. The website supports this model with resources for admissions, academic support, and career development. The presence of multiple social media channels and marketing pixels suggests active engagement and outreach strategies. The lack of publicly available WHOIS data is consistent with privacy protection practices common in educational institutions. No suspicious domains or partners were identified, reinforcing the institution's credibility.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and integrates security best practices such as asynchronous loading of tracking scripts and no exposure of sensitive data in the HTML. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy are not evident, and there is no public security.txt or incident response information. The site could enhance its security posture by publishing vulnerability disclosure policies and improving header configurations. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected. The security score is high but with room for improvement in transparency and header policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  2. Add explicit Content-Security-Policy and other security headers to strengthen defense-in-depth.
  3. Publish incident response and security policies publicly to improve transparency and trust.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking pixels to minimize privacy risks.
  5. Enhance terms of service visibility and completeness to cover user agreements comprehensively.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Ottawa
Description
The University of Ottawa is a major Canadian university offering undergraduate and graduate programs, research, and community engagement primarily in education sector.
Key services
Undergraduate programs, Graduate and postdoctoral studies, Research and innovation, Student support and mentoring, Campus life and events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, YouTube iframe API, StackAdapt, Siteimprove, Slick Carousel, LazySizes
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern libraries and pixels with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), TikTok Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, Reddit Analytics, Siteimprove
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
StackAdapt
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, LinkedIn Insight, Reddit Pixel, Spotify Pixel
Marketing tools
Campaigner
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained university site with bilingual support
  2. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  3. Use of modern web technologies and analytics/tracking pixels
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  5. WHOIS data is not publicly available, typical for .ca domains with privacy protection
  6. Contact information is clearly provided with official phone number and contact page
  7. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page
  8. No explicit terms of service page found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Drupal 10 CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as LazySizes for image loading and Slick Carousel for UI components. It integrates multiple marketing and analytics tools including Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, LinkedIn Insight, and Reddit Pixel, indicating extensive user tracking and marketing efforts. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous script loading and optimized images. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting a large-scale educational website.
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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