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Security report for wissenschaftsrat.ch

Schweizer Wissenschaftsrat · Government · Switzerland

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Schweizer Wissenschaftsrat website serves as the official online presence of the Swiss Science Council, a government advisory body focused on science policy and research development in Switzerland. The site targets government officials, researchers, and the public interested in scientific policy matters. It offers information about the council's activities and provides contact avenues primarily through a contact form. Technically, the website is built using modern frameworks such as Nuxt.js and Tailwind CSS, ensuring a responsive and professional user experience. The presence of Google Tag Manager indicates moderate analytics usage, balanced with a cookie consent mechanism to address privacy concerns. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and includes standard security headers, reflecting a good security posture. However, it lacks explicit privacy, terms of service, and security policies, which are recommended for full compliance and transparency. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professionally maintained, and aligned with its government entity status.

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

5 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • 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 Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  3. 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

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: 149.126.6.126

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching wissenschaftsrat.ch

This scan found 23 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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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
72
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
69

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 Swiss Science Council operates as a government advisory entity, providing strategic recommendations on science and research policy. Its market position is authoritative within the Swiss government framework, serving as a key influencer in national science policy. The business model is non-commercial, focused on policy consultancy and research evaluation. The target audience includes policymakers, academic researchers, and the Swiss public. The website reflects a stable and consistent brand with clear navigation and professional content. The absence of commercial elements and the use of a .ch domain reinforce its official status. The partnership ecosystem is not explicitly detailed on the site, and no subsidiaries or related commercial entities are indicated.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and a comprehensive set of security headers implemented. The use of modern frameworks reduces the risk of common vulnerabilities, and no exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analysis. The cookie consent mechanism indicates awareness of privacy regulations such as GDPR. However, the lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness communication. No vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file was found, which could be improved to enhance security culture and incident handling readiness. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced documentation and communication of security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy page to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Add a terms of service page to clarify user rights and obligations.
  3. Develop and publish a security policy and incident response plan accessible to users.
  4. Implement a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve inclusivity and compliance with standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Schweizer Wissenschaftsrat
Description
The Schweizer Wissenschaftsrat (Swiss Science Council) is a government advisory body focused on science policy and research development in Switzerland. It provides recommendations and guidance on scientific matters to the Swiss government.
Key services
Science policy advice, Research evaluation, Strategic recommendations for Swiss science
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Nuxt.js, Tailwind CSS, Swiper.js, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Vue.js, Nuxt.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • Cookie consent implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Swiss government science council website
  2. Professional and consistent branding
  3. Good technical implementation with modern frameworks
  4. Cookie consent implemented indicating GDPR awareness
  5. No explicit privacy or terms of service pages found
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible in main HTML
  7. Contact form available on /kontakt page
  8. Google Tag Manager used for analytics
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack including Nuxt.js (Vue.js framework), Tailwind CSS for styling, and Swiper.js for interactive elements. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and tracking. The site is well-structured with responsive design ensuring good mobile optimization. Performance is moderate, likely due to the use of multiple JavaScript modules and external scripts. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. Hosting details are not explicitly identified but the domain and infrastructure suggest a stable Swiss hosting environment. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with room for optimization in performance and accessibility.
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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