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Security report for visitcalifornia.com

Visit California · Hospitality · United States

Low risk. 1 critical or high finding in SSL/TLS.

Security score

82/100

Risk levelLow

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

Visit California is the official travel and tourism website for the state of California, operated by the California Travel and Tourism Commission. The site provides comprehensive information about attractions, accommodations, events, and travel tips to promote tourism within the state. It targets tourists and travelers seeking to explore California's diverse destinations. The website is well-positioned as a trusted government resource with strong branding and a clear focus on hospitality and tourism services. Technically, the website is built using modern web technologies including React and Gatsby, ensuring fast performance and excellent mobile optimization. The use of Mapbox GL JS enhances interactive map features. The site demonstrates good SEO practices and accessibility features, contributing to a positive user experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, implements key security headers, and avoids exposing sensitive data. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, reflecting a mature approach to user privacy. However, no explicit security or incident response policies are published, which could be improved. Overall, Visit California presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility and technical maturity. Strategic recommendations include publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, enhancing incident response transparency, and maintaining ongoing security audits to sustain trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 visitcalifornia.com

This scan found 18 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

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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
77
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
82

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

Visit California operates as a government entity focused on promoting tourism in California. Its market positioning as the official state tourism site provides a competitive advantage through authoritative content and branding. The business model centers on information dissemination and tourism promotion rather than direct sales. Revenue streams likely include partnerships and sponsorships with local businesses and tourism operators. The target customer segments are domestic and international travelers interested in California. The site reflects a large organizational size with a professional digital presence and partnerships with various tourism-related domains. Growth indicators include comprehensive content and active social media engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a strong security posture with enforced HTTPS, presence of multiple security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities in the HTML content. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are implemented, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the absence of a published security policy or incident response plan limits transparency. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, which are recommended best practices. The WHOIS data is unavailable or privacy protected, which is common but reduces transparency. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by publishing formal security governance documents and disclosure policies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan on the website to improve transparency.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Maintain regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data retention policies and user data handling practices.
  5. Continue to improve accessibility and mobile optimization to maintain excellent user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
California Travel and Tourism Commission
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Visit California
Description
Official tourism site for the state of California providing information on things to do, places to visit, hotels, restaurants, beaches, mountains, cities, and more.
Key services
Travel guides, Tourism information, Event listings, Hotel and accommodation information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Gatsby, Mapbox GL JS
Frameworks
React, Gatsby
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content
  2. No WAF or blocking detected
  3. WHOIS data unavailable or privacy protected
  4. Strong security headers and HTTPS usage
  5. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies present
  6. No suspicious or malicious content detected
  7. Good mobile and accessibility support
  8. Official government tourism site branding and content
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with React and Gatsby, enabling fast static site generation and dynamic client-side features. Integration with Mapbox GL JS provides advanced mapping capabilities. The site is well-structured with valid HTML and CSS, optimized for performance and SEO. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility are well implemented. No major technical debt or legacy technologies were detected. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified but the site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration. Opportunities exist to further enhance technical maturity by adopting automated security scanning and continuous integration pipelines.
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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