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Security report for vrt.be

VRT · Media · Belgium

Low risk. 1 critical or high finding in GDPR outside view.

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

VRT is the primary public broadcaster for the Flemish community in Belgium, providing a wide range of television, radio, and online news and entertainment services. The website serves as a portal to their various media offerings including VRT MAX streaming, VRT NWS news, and multiple radio and TV channels. The site is well designed with a modern tech stack leveraging Next.js and React, ensuring fast performance and excellent mobile optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and appropriate security headers in place. Privacy compliance is robust with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. The WHOIS data is restricted due to DNS Belgium policies, which is typical and justified for privacy reasons. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and serves a broad general audience effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
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  • 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
100
Security headers
70
Email security
82
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
85

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

VRT operates as a government-funded public media entity with a strong market position in Flanders. Its business model combines public funding with advertising revenue. The company targets the general Flemish-speaking population with diverse content including news, entertainment, and educational programming. The website reflects a mature digital presence with integrated analytics and marketing tools. Partnerships and related domains are limited to internal services and official subdomains. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers on the homepage suggests a preference for controlled communication channels such as contact forms.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced, modern security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. The use of reputable analytics and tag management services is balanced with privacy compliance efforts. However, no explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies were found, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. The lack of a published security policy or DPO contact is noted but not uncommon for public broadcasters. Overall, the site is secure and follows best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a clear vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  2. Provide explicit incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Consider adding direct company contact emails or phone numbers in a dedicated contact section for better user support.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no privacy or security risks.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and practices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
VRT
Description
VRT is the public Flemish broadcaster offering television, radio, and online news and entertainment content.
Key services
Television channels (VRT 1, VRT Canvas, Ketnet), Radio stations (Radio 1, Radio 2, MNM, Studio Brussel, Klara), Online news (VRT NWS), Streaming service (VRT MAX)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Next.js, React, Adobe Launch (Tag Management), Gemius (Analytics)
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Gemius, Adobe Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Gemius
Marketing tools
Adobe Launch
Transparency
good

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 and multimedia
  2. Strong branding and consistent user interface
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies present
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage; contact via forms
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
  6. No security or WAF blocking detected
  7. WHOIS data is restricted, typical for .be domains
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript framework (Next.js) with React, enabling server-side rendering and optimized performance. It employs Adobe Launch for tag management and Gemius for analytics, indicating a sophisticated marketing and data collection setup. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary solution. Hosting details are not explicit but the site is fast and reliable. The technical infrastructure supports a high-quality user experience with minimal technical debt.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 84/100Low23 findingsView report
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