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Security report for vliz.be

Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee · Government · Belgium

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ) is a well-established Flemish marine research institute founded in 1999, focusing on interdisciplinary ocean, sea, coastal, and estuarine research. The website reflects a mature digital presence built on Drupal 10, featuring comprehensive content, clear navigation, and multilingual support (Dutch and English). The organization targets researchers, businesses, policymakers, and the general public, providing research infrastructure, data services, education, and public outreach. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies and Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics. Security posture is good with HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security headers and incident response information are absent. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with GDPR, supporting VLIZ's mission and public engagement effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

6 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 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

  3. 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.

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

Keep watching vliz.be

This scan found 27 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

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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
50
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
65

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

VLIZ holds a strong market position as a government/non-profit marine research entity in Belgium, leveraging partnerships with European research infrastructures and regional organizations. Its business model centers on research, data provision, and knowledge dissemination rather than commercial sales, supported by a webshop for merchandise. The target audience includes academic researchers, industry stakeholders in the blue economy, policymakers, and citizens interested in marine science. The website's content and structure indicate a focus on transparency, education, and community engagement, with active event promotion and publication sharing. The partnership ecosystem includes recognized marine and biodiversity platforms, enhancing VLIZ's credibility and reach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security baseline with enforced HTTPS, cookie consent compliant with GDPR, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. Use of Matomo analytics indicates privacy-aware tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts represent areas for improvement. No vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files were found, which could enhance transparency and trust. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened with additional best practices and formalized policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy page and provide clear incident response contact channels to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve trust with security researchers.
  4. Consider including direct contact information such as official emails or phone numbers for general and security-related inquiries.
  5. Regularly review and update privacy and cookie policies to maintain compliance with evolving regulations and best practices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee
Description
Het Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee staat voor degelijk interdisciplinair onderzoek van de oceaan, zeeën, kust en estuaria.
Key services
Marine research, Data & information services, Infrastructure offerings (research vessels, equipment), Education and public information, Knowledge valorization
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Font Awesome 6.7.2, Matomo Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
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 no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented and well-structured.
  3. Strong focus on marine research and public education.
  4. Good privacy and cookie compliance with opt-in consent.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via web form.
  6. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and analytics (Matomo).
  7. Social media presence across multiple platforms.
  8. No visible security policy or incident response information.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring maintainability and security updates. It uses Font Awesome for icons and Matomo for analytics, favoring privacy. The site is multilingual with Dutch and English versions, optimized for mobile devices and accessibility. Performance is moderate, with deferred and async loading of scripts to improve load times. The presence of canonical and Open Graph meta tags supports SEO and social sharing. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and formalize security documentation.
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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