Skip to main content

Security report for va.lv

Vidzemes Augstskola · Education · Latvia

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and Security headers.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Vidzemes Augstskola is a regional higher education institution in Latvia offering a range of academic programs including bachelor, master, doctoral, and lifelong learning courses. The website serves students, staff, alumni, and cooperation partners with information on study processes, events, and services. The institution maintains an active online presence with regular news and event updates, supported by social media channels. Technically, the website is built on Joomla CMS using the Helix Ultimate framework and hosted behind Cloudflare, but critically lacks a valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS support. This is a significant security risk that undermines user trust and data protection. The site implements cookie consent mechanisms and has comprehensive privacy policies, indicating good privacy compliance. However, the absence of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols severely impacts the overall security posture. Strategic improvements in SSL/TLS deployment and security headers are essential to enhance the site's security and trustworthiness.

Scanned

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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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. 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';…

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

Keep watching va.lv

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

€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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
85
Security headers
20
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
Average
61

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

Vidzemes Augstskola operates as an educational entity focused on higher education and research within Latvia. It targets students, academic staff, and cooperation partners, offering diverse study programs and research projects. The institution leverages partnerships such as idejubanka.va.lv and uses external platforms like dreamapply.com for admissions. Its business model centers on academic services and lifelong learning, with a medium-sized organizational footprint. The website content and structure reflect a professional and consistent brand image, supporting its market position as a reputable regional university. The active event calendar and social media engagement indicate a dynamic community presence and outreach strategy.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS, exposing users to potential data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. While DNS records show proper SPF and DMARC configurations to protect email integrity, the web server does not support modern TLS protocols or security features like HSTS and OCSP stapling. No critical vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed or POODLE were detected, but the missing HTTPS is a critical issue. The site uses Cloudflare as a CDN and DNS provider, which could facilitate improved security if properly configured. The cookie consent mechanism and privacy policy demonstrate awareness of privacy regulations, but technical security gaps must be addressed urgently.

Recommendations

  1. Install and configure a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 protocols and disable outdated protocols to secure communications.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling to improve certificate revocation checking performance and security.
  5. Add additional security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  6. Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability scans to identify and remediate potential risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Vidzemes Augstskola
Registration number
LV90001342592
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Joomla CMS with the Helix Ultimate template framework, utilizing Bootstrap 5 and jQuery libraries. It is hosted behind Cloudflare, which provides CDN and DNS services. The site includes Google Fonts and integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics. Performance metrics indicate slow loading times, possibly due to lack of caching and optimization. The site is mobile responsive with basic accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. However, the absence of HTTPS and modern TLS protocols is a major technical deficiency. The site uses a cookie consent manager with detailed categories, indicating good compliance with privacy standards. Overall, the technical infrastructure is functional but requires modernization and security enhancements.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with va.lv. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review va.lv.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.