Skip to main content

Security report for vaud-welcome.ch

Cantonal Office for the Integration of Foreigners and the Prevention of Racism (BCI) · Government · Switzerland

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 3 other checks.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Canton of Vaud Welcome Portal is an official government platform designed to assist foreigners and newcomers in integrating into the canton by providing comprehensive information on residence permits, French courses, work, and practical living information. It is managed by the Cantonal Office for the Integration of Foreigners and the Prevention of Racism (BCI), reflecting a strong public service orientation. The website is well-structured, multilingual, and regularly updated, targeting new residents to facilitate their administrative and social integration.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

7 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

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

  3. 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
    • High

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 10 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

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

Keep watching vaud-welcome.ch

This scan found 21 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. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

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
62
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
65
Average
55

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

The portal occupies a key position as the official integration resource for the Canton of Vaud, leveraging partnerships with cantonal government sites and social organizations like CSP. Its business model is non-commercial, focusing on public service delivery. The presence of multilingual brochures and extensive practical information indicates a mature content strategy aimed at diverse immigrant populations. The site’s integration with other cantonal domains suggests a cohesive digital ecosystem supporting regional governance and social services.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with HTTPS enforcement, use of security tokens in forms, and a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. However, it lacks explicit published security policies or incident response contacts, and security headers are not visibly configured. The use of mature CMS technology (DotNetNuke) and updated libraries reduces vulnerability risks, but further enhancements such as security.txt and advanced headers would strengthen defenses. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected in the content.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with standards and user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to mitigate risks from outdated software.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Cantonal Office for the Integration of Foreigners and the Prevention of Racism (BCI)
Description
The website is a public service platform provided by the Cantonal Office for the Integration of Foreigners and the Prevention of Racism (BCI) to facilitate the integration and administrative procedures for foreigners settling in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
Key services
Information on residence permits, French courses, Work and employment guidance, Practical information on accommodation, health, insurance, schooling, Brochures in multiple languages, Contact and FAQ support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
DotNetNuke (DNN) CMS, jQuery 3.2.1, jQuery UI 1.12.1, Bootstrap 4.0.0, Font Awesome 4.7.0, tarteaucitron.js (cookie consent)
Frameworks
DotNetNuke
Platforms
Microsoft ASP.NET Web Forms
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security tokens in forms (__VIEWSTATE, __EVENTVALIDATION)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official government website for Canton of Vaud integration services
  2. Content is comprehensive and multilingual brochures available
  3. Uses a mature CMS platform (DotNetNuke)
  4. Cookie consent implemented with tarteaucitron.js
  5. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content
  6. Contact information clearly provided with official email and phone
  7. No terms of service page detected
  8. No explicit security or incident response policies published
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the DotNetNuke CMS platform using ASP.NET Web Forms technology, with front-end libraries including jQuery, jQuery UI, Bootstrap 4, and Font Awesome. It employs a cookie consent tool (tarteaucitron.js) for GDPR compliance. The site shows good mobile optimization and SEO practices with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement by optimizing resource loading and modernizing some legacy components. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified in the content. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable and suitable for a government information portal.
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 vaud-welcome.ch. 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 vaud-welcome.ch.

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.