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Security report for usi.ch

Università della Svizzera italiana · Education · Switzerland

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

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) is a Swiss public university offering a broad range of academic programs including Bachelor, Master, Doctorate, and lifelong learning courses. It is internationally recognized and positioned among the top 250 universities globally. The website serves students, academic staff, alumni, and corporate partners, providing comprehensive information about academic offerings, research, innovation, and events. The university maintains a strong digital presence with active social media channels and regularly updated news and events sections. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS and employs modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Usercentrics for consent management, and Bing tracking. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with a moderate performance profile. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly implemented with consent mechanisms, reflecting good compliance with GDPR. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with excellent SSL configuration and includes consent management for cookies. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not visibly implemented, and no dedicated security or incident response policies are published. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, USI's website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance suitable for an academic institution. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and adding a vulnerability disclosure mechanism to further strengthen security posture.

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

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

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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
85
Email security
82
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
78

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

USI operates as a public university in Switzerland, targeting students, researchers, and academic partners. It offers diverse academic programs across multiple faculties and maintains a strong research and innovation focus, including start-up incubation and patent filings. The university's market position is solid, supported by international rankings and extensive academic collaborations. Revenue streams likely include tuition fees, research grants, and public funding. The website reflects a mature digital ecosystem with integrated marketing and analytics tools, supporting engagement with its academic community and external stakeholders.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and consent management for cookies. The absence of explicit security headers and published security policies indicates room for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. The lack of a security.txt or incident response contact reduces transparency for vulnerability reporting. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and formalizing security communication channels.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information on the website.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance form security with anti-CSRF tokens and robust input validation to prevent injection attacks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Università della Svizzera italiana
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Università della Svizzera italiana
Description
L’USI è un’università pubblica svizzera. Internazionale e a misura di studente, offre formazione e ricerca in diverse aree.
Key services
Bachelor programs, Master programs, Doctorate programs, Lifelong learning, Research, Innovation and start-up incubation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Usercentrics (consent management), Google Custom Search Engine, Bing UET Tag, SVG icons, JavaScript ES6 modules
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Consent management for cookies
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable or outdated libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, Bing UET Tag
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Bing Ads
Tracking pixels
Bing UET Tag
Marketing tools
Usercentrics Consent Management, Google Custom Search Engine
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured
  2. Content is rich and relevant to academic and student audiences
  3. Strong presence of official contact information and social media links
  4. Good implementation of privacy and cookie consent mechanisms
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  6. Use of modern web technologies and consent management
  7. Events and news sections are actively maintained with future dates
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS and uses modern JavaScript modules and SVG icons for UI elements. It integrates Google Tag Manager, Bing UET, and Usercentrics for analytics and consent management. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. The technical infrastructure supports a professional academic website with dynamic content such as news, events, and study programs. No outdated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided HTML 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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