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Security report for vassar.edu

Vassar College · Education · United States

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Vassar College is a well-established liberal arts college in the Northeastern United States, offering a broad range of academic programs and a vibrant campus life. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence, targeting prospective and current students, families, alumni, and employees. The institution positions itself as a top liberal arts college with a strong emphasis on academic rigor and community engagement. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 11 with modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and Monsido for heatmaps. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, providing a positive user experience. The use of HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms indicates attention to security and privacy compliance. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, though the site could improve by adding explicit security headers and publishing a security policy or incident response contacts. The absence of WHOIS data is typical for .edu domains and does not detract from the legitimacy of the institution. Overall, the website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure suitable for an educational institution. Recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, and providing clearer contact information for security incidents to strengthen trust and compliance further.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  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 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';…

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Keep watching vassar.edu

This scan found 20 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.

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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
67
Security headers
40
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
73

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

Vassar College operates as a non-profit educational institution focused on liberal arts undergraduate education. Its market position is strong within the higher education sector, particularly in the Northeastern US. The college leverages a comprehensive campaign and active alumni engagement to support its mission. Revenue streams likely include tuition, donations, and grants. The website's integration with campaign and athletics domains indicates a broad partnership ecosystem. Growth indicators include active news updates and alumni achievements. The institution maintains a consistent brand and digital presence, supporting its reputation and outreach efforts.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and uses cookie consent banners, reflecting compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the lack of explicit security headers and absence of a published security policy or incident response contact reduces the overall security maturity. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not visible on the site. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved with formalized policies and enhanced HTTP headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Create and publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance transparency around data retention and privacy compliance details.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve performance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Vassar College
Description
Ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the US, Vassar offers a rigorous academic program and rich campus experience to a diverse, coed student body.
Key services
Undergraduate education, Academic programs in 48 departments and 50 majors, Campus life and student services, Athletics programs, Arts and cultural events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 11, Google Tag Manager, Monsido heatmaps, Vimeo Player, jQuery
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, Bootstrap CSS framework
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of consent banner for cookies
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Monsido heatmaps
Marketing tools
Monsido
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and multimedia.
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  3. Strong branding and consistent design.
  4. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanism.
  5. No visible security policy or incident response information.
  6. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in HTML; contact likely via forms or linked pages.
  7. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks.
  8. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  9. Social media presence across multiple platforms.
  10. No adult or unsafe content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 11 CMS, leveraging Bootstrap for responsive design and jQuery for scripting. It integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics and Monsido for heatmaps, indicating a focus on user experience and data-driven improvements. The site uses modern image formats and responsive techniques for performance optimization. No hosting provider details were found, but the site uses HTTPS with a valid certificate. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement by optimizing third-party scripts. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are present, supporting inclusive design. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and well-maintained with opportunities for further optimization.
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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