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Security report for visit.cern

CERN · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website visit.cern is the official visitor portal for CERN Science Gateway, providing comprehensive information about visiting CERN, including exhibitions, events, educational resources, and support opportunities. The site targets a broad audience including families, educational groups, and science enthusiasts, positioning itself as a leading educational and scientific outreach platform. The business model is non-profit, aligned with CERN's mission as a premier international scientific research organization. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web technologies such as Bootstrap, jQuery, and Matomo analytics, hosted on CERN's infrastructure, delivering fast and mobile-optimized performance with good accessibility and SEO practices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a clear data privacy page and cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained, reflecting CERN's reputable brand and mission.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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';…

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching visit.cern

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.

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.

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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
95
Security headers
40
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
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

CERN Science Gateway serves as a key public interface for CERN's outreach and educational activities, leveraging partnerships with foundations and donors such as Stellantis and the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. The portal supports visitor engagement through event listings, booking systems, and educational content, enhancing CERN's visibility and public impact. The site’s clear navigation, multilingual support, and rich content indicate a mature digital presence. The absence of direct phone or email contacts suggests a preference for centralized web form communications and official channels. The partnership ecosystem and donor acknowledgments highlight a collaborative approach to funding and support.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place. The use of Matomo analytics with DoNotTrack respects user privacy. However, the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represent areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response page limits transparency in security governance. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance its security maturity by adopting additional best practices and publishing relevant policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Create and publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Consider adding explicit contact information such as a security or abuse email address for incident reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
CERN
Description
Official visitor information portal for CERN Science Gateway, providing details on visiting hours, exhibitions, events, educational resources, and support opportunities.
Key services
Visitor information and bookings, Public events and exhibitions, Educational resources and workshops, Support and partnership opportunities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, jQuery, Bootstrap, Matomo Analytics, Owl Carousel, Prism.js, Colorbox, ScrollMagic
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, Bootstrap
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of DoNotTrack in analytics

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained visitor portal for CERN Science Gateway.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and multilingual support is present (English and French).
  3. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious activity.
  4. Strong branding and consistent use of CERN logos and domain.
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security misconfigurations detected in HTML content.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations.
  7. No explicit privacy or security policy pages beyond data privacy page found.
  8. No visible phone numbers or physical addresses explicitly stated on the main page.
  9. Contact is primarily via web form and official CERN press office link.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern and robust Drupal 10 CMS platform, utilizing Bootstrap for responsive design and various JavaScript libraries for enhanced user experience such as Owl Carousel and Prism.js. Hosting appears to be managed internally by CERN, ensuring control over infrastructure. Performance is optimized with asynchronous script loading and mobile-friendly meta tags. The site includes multilingual support and accessibility features, though some improvements could be made in security headers. Overall, the technical implementation supports a high-quality user experience with scalable and maintainable infrastructure.
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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