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Security report for verbraucherzentrale-berlin.de

Verbraucherzentrale Berlin · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Verbraucherzentrale Berlin is a well-established consumer advice and advocacy organization serving the Berlin region. The website offers comprehensive information and services across multiple consumer-related sectors including energy, health, digital literacy, and finance. It targets a broad audience including vulnerable groups such as refugees and seniors. The organization operates multiple projects and provides educational events, consultations, and publications. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web technologies and integrates Matomo analytics for user tracking. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with good SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers and explicit policies could be improved. Privacy compliance is good with a clear GDPR privacy policy but lacks a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and serves as a key regional resource for consumer protection.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
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

5 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

    • 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. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  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

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

Keep watching verbraucherzentrale-berlin.de

This scan found 28 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
62
Security headers
55
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

The Verbraucherzentrale Berlin holds a strong market position as a regional government or non-profit entity focused on consumer protection and education. Its business model is service-oriented, providing free and paid advice, educational content, and advocacy. The organization leverages partnerships with specialized portals and projects to extend its reach and impact. The target customer segments include general consumers, students, parents, seniors, and refugees. The website's content quality and branding consistency support its credibility and trustworthiness. The presence of multiple projects and external trusted domains indicates a mature partnership ecosystem and strategic outreach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data. The use of modern libraries and frameworks reduces the risk of known vulnerabilities. However, the absence of explicit security headers and a formal security policy or incident response contact reduces the overall security maturity. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file is present, which could be an area for improvement. The site does not appear to have any critical security issues or malware. Privacy compliance is good but could be enhanced with cookie consent mechanisms and clearer data retention policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner to comply fully with EU cookie regulations and improve user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to enhance trust and preparedness.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no privacy or security risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Verbraucherzentrale Berlin
Description
Die Verbraucherzentrale Berlin ist eine unabhängige Anlaufstelle für Verbraucher mit Beratungsangeboten, Informationsdiensten und Interessenvertretung in Berlin. Sie bietet umfangreiche Informationen zu Geld & Versicherungen, Digitale Welt, Lebensmittel, Umwelt & Haushalt, Gesundheit & Pflege, Energie, Reise & Mobilität sowie Verträge & Reklamation.
Key services
Consumer advice and consultation, Educational events and workshops, Information portals and publications, Specialized projects (e.g., energy advice, food clarity, digital education), Newsletter and media content
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, jQuery, Modernizr, Lazysizes, Matomo Analytics, Slick Slider
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage (implied by canonical URL and external links)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern JS libraries
  • No inline sensitive credentials

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Newsletter2Go
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional consumer advice portal for Berlin region.
  2. Content is comprehensive, well-structured, and regularly updated.
  3. Multiple projects and external trusted links enhance credibility.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  5. No explicit privacy or security policy beyond GDPR privacy policy found.
  6. No visible cookie consent banner or terms of service page.
  7. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  8. Contact information is clear but no direct email addresses found in HTML.
  9. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and secure CMS platform, using standard web technologies including jQuery, Modernizr, and Lazysizes for performance optimization. The site uses Matomo for analytics, which is privacy-friendly compared to other analytics platforms. The presence of responsive design and accessibility features indicates good technical maturity. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization in image loading and script management. The site integrates multiple external project portals and partner sites, indicating a complex but well-managed infrastructure. No hosting provider details were found in the HTML content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the organization's mission effectively with opportunities for further 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

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