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Security report for uzh.ch

Universität Zürich · Education · Switzerland

High risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The University of Zurich (Universität Zürich) operates a comprehensive and professionally designed website targeting students, staff, researchers, and international audiences. The site offers extensive academic program information, research highlights, events, and institutional insights, positioning itself as Switzerland's largest university with a strong European research reputation. Technically, the website is built on Magnolia CMS, served by Apache on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and uses jQuery and Matomo analytics for user tracking. However, the site currently suffers from a critical security shortfall due to an invalid or missing SSL certificate, resulting in no active HTTPS support and disabling modern TLS protocols. Security headers are partially implemented, but improvements are needed to enhance protection and trust. Privacy compliance is moderate, with a clear privacy policy present but lacking a cookie consent mechanism. Contact information is available via dedicated pages but not directly exposed on the homepage. Overall, the website demonstrates high content quality and business credibility but requires urgent security enhancements to protect user data and maintain trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of uzh.ch. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

6 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 Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  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 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 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 uzh.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

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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
0
Security headers
40
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
Average
49

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

UZH is a large, established educational institution with a broad portfolio of academic programs and research initiatives. The website reflects a public university business model focused on education, research, and community engagement. The institution maintains partnerships with Swiss and European university networks, enhancing its market position. The site targets prospective and current students, academic staff, and international visitors, offering multilingual content and extensive navigation. Revenue streams likely include public funding, tuition, research grants, and donations. The digital presence is mature but could benefit from improved security and privacy features to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Security posture

The current security posture is weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, exposing users to risks such as data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. While some security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options are set, the lack of HSTS and OCSP stapling reduces overall security. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is publicly available, limiting transparency. The use of HttpOnly cookies is a positive practice. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues is critical to protect user data and maintain institutional reputation.

Recommendations

  1. Acquire and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS and secure communications.
  2. Enable and configure modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated versions.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  5. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to improve trust and compliance.
Technical notes

Notes

The website runs on a stable and widely used technology stack including Apache HTTP Server, Magnolia CMS, and jQuery. The presence of Matomo analytics indicates a preference for privacy-conscious tracking. However, performance metrics are missing or zero, suggesting potential issues with resource loading or monitoring. The site is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO practices. Technical debt is indicated by the outdated Apache version and disabled TLS protocols. Modernization efforts should focus on security upgrades and performance monitoring to ensure resilience and user satisfaction.
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. 69/100 +13Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 56/100 −11Medium28 findingsView report
  3. 67/100Medium32 findingsView report
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