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Security report for vernier.ch

Ville de Vernier · Government · Switzerland

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Ville de Vernier operates as the official municipal government website for the city of Vernier, Switzerland, serving approximately 37,000 residents. The site provides comprehensive information on local administration, practical services, cultural activities, news, and events, targeting a broad audience including seniors, youth, families, new inhabitants, associations, and enterprises. The business model is centered on public service delivery and community engagement, positioning itself as a trusted local authority. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern JavaScript frameworks like Alpine.js and privacy-focused analytics via Plausible. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, with a moderate performance profile. The infrastructure reflects a mature digital presence suitable for a government entity. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security headers and a dedicated incident response contact, which are recommended best practices. Privacy compliance is partial, with a basic privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism, potentially impacting GDPR adherence. Overall, the website presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility and technical implementation. Strategic improvements in privacy compliance and security hardening would enhance trust and regulatory alignment.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

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 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';…

  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 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching vernier.ch

This scan found 25 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
72
Security headers
50
Email security
55
DNS health
85
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
53

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 website serves as the digital face of the Vernier municipal government, focusing on delivering public services and information to its residents. Its market position is that of a local government authority with a stable user base. The business model is non-commercial, emphasizing community service and transparency. Key services include administrative procedures, cultural and leisure activities, and public announcements. The site targets diverse demographic segments within the municipality, indicating a broad community engagement strategy. The presence of social media channels and a newsletter subscription suggests active communication efforts. No commercial partnerships or subsidiaries are evident, consistent with a government entity.

Security posture

The website exhibits a good security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and no visible exposure of sensitive information. The absence of advanced security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No known vulnerable libraries or insecure scripts were detected. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness for security incidents. Privacy compliance is partial, with no cookie consent mechanism detected, which may pose compliance risks under GDPR. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, suitable for a government website but with room for enhancement.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and provide clear incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Introduce a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy controls.
  4. Enhance the privacy policy to explicitly address GDPR requirements and data processing practices.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure they align with privacy and security standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ville de Vernier
Description
Vernier, une Ville pas Commune Au service de nos 37'000 habitantes et habitants
Key services
Administration and authorities information, Practical life services, Culture, sports and leisure activities, News and events, Popular administrative procedures
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Alpine.js, Plausible Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Plausible Analytics
Marketing tools
Plausible Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-structured municipal government portal for the city of Vernier, Switzerland.
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and professionally presented in French.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie consent mechanisms found, which may impact GDPR compliance.
  5. Security posture is good but can be improved with additional headers and incident response info.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring a robust content management framework. It uses Alpine.js for frontend interactivity and Plausible Analytics for privacy-conscious user tracking. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features, providing a good user experience across devices. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by rich media content and third-party integrations. The technical stack is modern and maintainable, though opportunities exist to optimize loading times and implement advanced security configurations. No legacy or deprecated technologies were detected.
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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