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Security report for uscyberrange.org

U.S. Cyber Range · Education · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

U.S. Cyber Range is an educational technology platform focused on providing scalable, cloud-hosted virtual environments for hands-on cybersecurity training. The platform is designed primarily for educators and students, offering realistic labs, courseware, and capture-the-flag exercises. It is positioned as a trusted resource used by thousands across 40 states, supported by partnerships with organizations such as Rapid Ascent and Teach Cyber. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand identity aligned with its educational mission. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with Elementor and Gravity Forms, leveraging modern web technologies including Google reCAPTCHA v3 and Google Analytics for security and analytics. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although performance is moderate. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling, but lacks some advanced security headers and published security policies. The security posture is solid with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates room for improvement in transparency and compliance. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no explicit cookie consent mechanism detected. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional, serving its educational audience well. The lack of WHOIS data is a minor concern but does not significantly detract from the site's legitimacy given the strong business and technical indicators. Strategic recommendations include enhancing privacy and security disclosures, implementing cookie consent, and publishing incident response information to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

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

6 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 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';…

  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 uscyberrange.org

This scan found 25 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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
65

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

U.S. Cyber Range operates in the education and technology sectors, focusing on cybersecurity training. Its business model centers on providing cloud-hosted virtual labs and courseware to educational institutions, targeting educators and students. The platform's market position is solid, with adoption across 40 states and partnerships with notable cybersecurity education organizations. Revenue likely derives from platform subscriptions or service fees. The company is affiliated with Virginia Tech, enhancing credibility. The partnership ecosystem includes Rapid Ascent, Teach Cyber, and US Cyber Games, indicating a collaborative approach to cybersecurity education. Growth indicators include active user counts and deployment metrics displayed on the site. The business emphasizes ease of use and infrastructure offloading for educators, positioning itself as a cost-effective and scalable solution.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect forms from abuse. No sensitive data is exposed in the HTML, and no vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options suggests potential areas for enhancement. There is no publicly available security policy or incident response contact information, which limits transparency and may impact compliance with regulations like GDPR or NIS2. The site does not publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file, which are best practices for responsible vulnerability management. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved by adding these transparency and protective measures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive security policy page detailing security practices and compliance.
  2. Implement and display a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance privacy transparency.
  4. Publish incident response contact information, including dedicated security or abuse email addresses.
  5. Enhance HTTP security headers by adding CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to improve protection against common web attacks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
U.S. Cyber Range of Virginia Tech
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. Cyber Range
Description
Built by educators, for educators. Our scalable, cloud-hosted infrastructure provides students with virtual environments for realistic, hands-on cybersecurity labs and exercises.
Key services
Range Platform, Courseware, Cloud Capture The Flag (CTF), Knowledge Base, Customer Support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, Gravity Forms, Google reCAPTCHA v3, Google Analytics, FontAwesome, Swiper.js
Frameworks
Yoast SEO
Platforms
Cloud-hosted infrastructure
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure form submission

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

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 educational platform for cybersecurity training.
  2. Content is well-structured with clear navigation and calls to action.
  3. Multiple partner logos and testimonials enhance trust.
  4. No signs of adult or malicious content.
  5. WHOIS data is missing or inaccessible, which is a minor concern.
  6. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected.
  7. Security headers are not explicitly visible in HTML; recommend review.
  8. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using Elementor for page building and Gravity Forms for form management. It integrates Google reCAPTCHA v3 for bot protection and Google Analytics for user behavior tracking. The site uses FontAwesome icons and Swiper.js for interactive elements. Performance is moderate, with some optimization opportunities in loading speed. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, with responsive design and semantic HTML elements. SEO is well addressed with Yoast SEO plugin and proper meta tags including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data. No critical technical debt or outdated libraries were detected, indicating a well-maintained technical infrastructure. Hosting provider details are not explicitly available from the content.
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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