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Security report for wisskomm.social

Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e.V. · Technology · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Email security, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Wisskomm.social is a Mastodon instance operated by Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e.V., a German organization focused on scientific communication. The platform serves as a federated social media network for members of the scientific community, providing a space for sharing and discovering content related to science. The website is well-branded, consistent, and primarily targets German-speaking users interested in science and research. Technically, the site runs Mastodon version 4.3.8, hosted on Hetzner infrastructure, and uses modern web technologies including HTTPS and SVG graphics. The site is mobile-optimized and offers a good user experience with clear navigation and relevant content. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no exposed sensitive data, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not explicitly detected. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but lacking cookie consent mechanisms. No contact emails or phone numbers are publicly listed, and no incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professionally maintained, suitable for its niche audience.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of wisskomm.social. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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. 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

    • 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

  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

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

Keep watching wisskomm.social

This scan found 24 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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  • 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
75
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70

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 business operates as a niche social media platform within the scientific community, leveraging the Mastodon open-source software to provide decentralized social networking. Its market position is specialized, focusing on science communication and federated social media users in Germany. The business model likely revolves around community engagement and possibly institutional support rather than commercial revenue streams. The organization behind the site, Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e.V., is a recognized entity in Germany, enhancing credibility. The platform's partnership ecosystem includes the broader Mastodon and Fediverse communities. Growth indicators include active user profiles and ongoing domain registration. Strategic observations suggest maintaining open source alignment and enhancing privacy and security transparency could strengthen market trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, ensuring encrypted communications. However, the absence of DNSSEC and missing security headers like Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options represent areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of publicly available incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure policies indicates a gap in security transparency and readiness. GDPR compliance is partially addressed via a privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are missing. Overall, the security posture is adequate for the site's purpose but could benefit from enhanced security controls and clearer communication of security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply fully with GDPR requirements.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to improve transparency and incident response readiness.
  5. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and data protection inquiries to build user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e.V.
Description
Toots aus den Mitgliedseinrichtungen des Informationsdienstes Wissenschaft (idw)
Key services
Mastodon social networking, Federated social media platform
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon, Ruby on Rails (implied), JavaScript, SVG, Hetzner hosting
Frameworks
Mastodon
Platforms
Fediverse
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Mastodon instance focused on scientific communication.
  2. Content is in German and targets scientific community members.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the page.
  5. Privacy policy is present but cookie consent is missing.
  6. No visible security.txt or incident response information.
  7. Uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration.
  8. No DNSSEC enabled, which is a minor security gap.
  9. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
  10. Website uses open source Mastodon platform version 4.3.8.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Mastodon platform version 4.3.8, a modern open-source federated social media software. It uses JavaScript, SVG graphics, and CSS with integrity attributes for security. Hosting is provided by Hetzner, a reputable German hosting provider. The site is mobile-optimized and includes accessibility features such as ARIA labels and keyboard navigation support. Performance is moderate, with preloading of locale scripts and use of chunked JavaScript for efficient loading. No CMS is detected beyond the Mastodon platform itself. The domain uses Key-Systems, LLC as registrar with a valid registration period. The absence of DNSSEC and some security headers indicates minor technical debt. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid, leveraging modern web standards and open-source technologies suitable for a community-driven social platform.
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. 73/100Medium29 findingsView report
  2. 73/100Medium29 findingsView report
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