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Security report for vdab.be

VDAB · Government · Belgium

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

VDAB is the official public employment service of Flanders, Belgium, providing comprehensive job search, training, and career guidance services. The website is well-branded and targets job seekers, employers, and partners within the Flemish region. It operates under the Flemish government umbrella, offering a trusted platform for employment-related services. Technically, the site uses Drupal 10 CMS with modern JavaScript frameworks and integrates consent management and chat services, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is good with HTTPS and OIDC authentication, though some security headers and explicit incident response contacts are missing. WHOIS data is restricted, but the site’s official nature and consistent branding support its legitimacy. Overall, the site is professional, secure, and compliant with privacy regulations, serving a large government audience effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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

2 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 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 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

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

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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
64
Security headers
60
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
76

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

VDAB holds a strong market position as the primary government employment agency in Flanders, serving a large user base with job listings, training programs, and orientation services. Its business model is government-funded public service, focusing on workforce development and labor market integration. The site’s ecosystem includes partner domains like werkgevers.vdab.be and extranet.vdab.be, supporting employers and partners. The presence of events, testimonials, and social media engagement indicates active community involvement and outreach. The platform’s technology and content quality suggest ongoing investment in digital transformation to enhance user experience and service delivery.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with enforced HTTPS, use of OIDC for secure authentication, and integration of a consent management platform for GDPR compliance. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and lack of a published security policy or incident response contacts are areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The site’s security score is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and transparency measures to strengthen trust and incident readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Provide a public security policy page and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerable components are included.
  5. Enhance WHOIS transparency if possible or provide official domain registration information on the website.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
VDAB
Description
VDAB is the public employment service of Flanders, Belgium, helping job seekers find employment, offering training and career guidance.
Key services
Job search and job matching, Training and education, Career orientation and guidance, Employer services, Events and workshops
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Angular (OIDC widget), Genesys Messenger, Usercentrics CMP, Auvious video widget
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of OIDC for authentication
  • Consent management platform for cookies

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Usercentrics CMP
Marketing tools
Usercentrics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Flemish government employment service website
  2. Comprehensive job search and training resources
  3. Strong branding and consistent user experience
  4. Modern technology stack with Drupal 10 and Angular components
  5. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent management
  6. No visible security headers in HTML but HTTPS enforced
  7. No public security policy or incident response contacts found
  8. WHOIS data is restricted, limiting domain registration transparency
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS with Angular components for authentication and widgets, indicating a modern and modular architecture. It uses third-party services like Genesys for messaging and Usercentrics for consent management, reflecting integration with enterprise-grade tools. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with multiple CSS and JS assets loaded asynchronously or deferred. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting details are not explicit, but the presence of CDN domains suggests content delivery optimization. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust and user-friendly experience with room for 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

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