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Security report for usa.gov

USAGov · Government · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

USA.gov is the official U.S. government web portal designed to make government services and information easier to find for the general public. It provides comprehensive access to government benefits, programs, agencies, and contact information, serving as a trusted gateway for citizens and residents. The website is affiliated with the U.S. General Services Administration, reinforcing its authoritative position in the government digital ecosystem. The portal targets a broad audience including individuals seeking government assistance, information on legal issues, immigration, taxes, and more. Technically, USA.gov employs a modern and robust infrastructure leveraging Drupal CMS, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and Siteimprove Analytics for performance monitoring and user experience optimization. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, adhering to the U.S. Web Design System standards. Performance is fast, and SEO best practices are implemented effectively. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS exclusively, ensuring encrypted communications. While explicit security headers are not visible in the provided data, the site follows best practices by not exposing sensitive data and securing forms. Privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, though cookie consent mechanisms could be enhanced. No vulnerabilities or malicious indicators were detected, and the domain's .gov TLD and affiliation with the General Services Administration strongly support its legitimacy. Overall, USA.gov demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and technical maturity. Strategic recommendations include adding explicit security headers, implementing a security.txt file for vulnerability disclosures, and enhancing cookie consent transparency to further strengthen privacy compliance and security posture.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of usa.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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. 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 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';…

  2. 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

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

Keep watching usa.gov

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

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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
95
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
76

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

USA.gov holds a dominant position as the official U.S. government information portal, providing a centralized platform for citizens to access a wide range of government services and information. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and information dissemination. The site benefits from strong government backing, ensuring credibility and trust. Key services include benefit finders, legal and immigration information, and contact resources for government agencies. The portal's partnership with the General Services Administration and integration with multiple government domains enhance its ecosystem. Growth indicators include continuous updates and integration of modern analytics tools. The site’s extensive topic coverage and user-friendly design support broad adoption and engagement.

Security posture

The security posture of USA.gov is strong, with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The site uses secure forms and modern tracking technologies responsibly. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represents an area for improvement. No public incident response or vulnerability disclosure contacts were found, which could be added to improve transparency and readiness. Privacy policies are comprehensive and indicate compliance with relevant regulations. Overall, the site maintains a secure environment appropriate for a government portal, with room to enhance security header implementation and incident response visibility.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to provide clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response contact information.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to improve privacy compliance and user transparency regarding tracking.
  4. Consider publishing explicit incident response and abuse contact channels to strengthen security communication.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to ensure no vulnerabilities or privacy risks are introduced.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
U.S. General Services Administration
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
USAGov
Description
USA.gov helps you locate and understand government benefits, programs, and information.
Key services
Government benefits finder, Information on passports, Social Security, taxes, voting, and more, Contact information for elected officials and agencies
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, Siteimprove Analytics, Drupal CMS, USWDS (U.S. Web Design System)
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure .gov domain
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with proper input types

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Siteimprove Analytics, DigitalGov Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Crazy Egg
Tracking pixels
Crazy Egg, Siteimprove Analytics, DigitalGov Analytics
Marketing tools
Qualtrics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive government services and information portal
  3. No WHOIS registrant data publicly available, typical for .gov domains
  4. Uses modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banner visible
  7. Contact phone number clearly displayed in header and footer
  8. No email addresses publicly listed
  9. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page found
Technical notes

Notes

USA.gov is built on Drupal CMS and leverages the U.S. Web Design System for consistent, accessible, and responsive design. The site integrates multiple analytics and tracking services including Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and Siteimprove Analytics, indicating a mature approach to performance and user experience monitoring. The HTML structure is valid and SEO optimized with appropriate meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Mobile optimization and accessibility are excellent, supporting a wide range of users. No hosting provider details were extracted, but the site’s performance is fast. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, with opportunities to enhance security headers and privacy mechanisms.
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. 76/100Low27 findingsView report
  2. 76/100 −1Low26 findingsView report
  3. 77/100Low23 findingsView report
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