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Is harvardfilmarchive.org a Scam? Security Check Results - President and Fellows of Harvard College Reviews

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Is harvardfilmarchive.org Safe? Security Analysis for President and Fellows of Harvard College

Check if harvardfilmarchive.org is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

EducationUnited Statesmedium
JavaScriptGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Tag ManagerreCAPTCHAWebFont Loader+1 more
Analyzed 9/7/2025Completed 9:10:25 AM
48
Security Score
HIGH RISK

AI Summary

The Harvard Film Archive is a well-established educational and cultural institution affiliated with Harvard College, dedicated to film preservation and public exhibition. It operates a cinematheque with regular film screenings and maintains a significant audiovisual collection. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand image targeting students, academics, artists, and cinephiles. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Google Analytics and reCAPTCHA, hosted on DreamHost, with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and CAPTCHA protections, but lacks some security headers and explicit policies. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy linked to Harvard's main site but no cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site is trustworthy and serves its educational mission effectively.

Detected Technologies

JavaScriptGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Tag ManagerreCAPTCHAWebFont LoaderTypekit Fonts

🧠AI Business Intelligence

Technology stack, business insights, and market analysis powered by AI.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

The Harvard Film Archive holds a strong market position as a leading university-based film archive and cinematheque in the US. Its business model is non-profit and educational, focusing on film preservation, public screenings, and community engagement through filmmaker events. The target audience includes Harvard community members and the general public interested in film culture. The website supports this with detailed program listings, collections information, and subscription options. Partnerships appear limited to Harvard entities and cultural collaborators. The site’s content and design indicate a mature digital presence with room for enhanced privacy and security transparency.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect form submissions. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces defense-in-depth. No incident response or security policy pages are publicly available, which limits transparency. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The domain uses privacy protection for WHOIS, which is justified. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a cultural institution but could be improved with additional headers and policy disclosures.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Description:

The Harvard Film Archive is a cinematheque and a film archive dedicated to the preservation and public exhibition of film. It presents films Friday through Monday year round in a 188-seat theater located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. It is a division of Harvard Library with a collection of over 40,000 audiovisual items.

Key Services:
Film screeningsFilm preservationPublic exhibitionsFilm collections accessFilmmaker conversations and events
Content Quality:

excellent

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
JavaScriptGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Tag ManagerreCAPTCHAWebFont LoaderTypekit Fonts
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
80/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on newsletter subscription form
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsGoogle Tag Manager
Tracking Level:moderate
Privacy Compliance:basic

Advertising & Marketing

Transparency Level:basic

Website Quality Assessment

Design Quality:excellent
User Experience:excellent
Content Relevance:excellent
Navigation Clarity:excellent
Professionalism:excellent
Trustworthiness:high

Key Observations

1

Website is professionally designed and well maintained.

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

20/100
Score

Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

HIGH

Forces HTTPS connections

Missing X-Frame-Options header

HIGH

Prevents clickjacking attacks

Missing X-Content-Type-Options header

MEDIUM

Prevents MIME type sniffing

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

Missing Referrer-Policy header

LOW

Controls referrer information sent with requests

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

53/100
Score

No Cookie Policy found

HIGH

GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

No Cookie Consent Banner found

HIGH

GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

No Data Protection Officer mentioned

LOW

Large organizations may need to designate a DPO under GDPR

Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

MEDIUM

Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

GDPR Compliance Analysis

Privacy Policy85% confidence
Cookie Policy0% confidence
Contact Information Found90% confidence
phone

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

2/100
Score

No information security framework found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity and information security measures

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure

No security policy documentation found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity governance and risk management

No incident response procedures found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented incident response and business continuity plans

No business continuity planning found

MEDIUM

NIS2 emphasizes operational resilience and business continuity

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts

Critical sector without clear security compliance

HIGH

Detected sectors: transport, health, digital

📧Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation and email security assessment.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

60/100
Score

No DKIM record found

MEDIUM

DKIM adds cryptographic signatures to emails

No BIMI Record

LOW

BIMI displays brand logos in email clients

No MTA-STS Policy

MEDIUM

MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

No TLS-RPT Record

LOW

TLS-RPT provides reporting for email TLS issues

No email authentication configured

CRITICAL

Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

SPF
Sender Policy Framework
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication
MX Records
Mail Exchange Records
BIMI
Brand Indicators
MTA-STS
Mail Transfer Agent Security
TLS-RPT
TLS Reporting
DNSSEC
DNS Security

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

72/100
Score

Weak Protocols Supported

HIGH

Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

OCSP Stapling Not Enabled

LOW

OCSP stapling improves performance and privacy

Certificate Transparency Not Implemented

LOW

Certificate is not logged in Certificate Transparency logs

SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

MEDIUM

SSL certificate expires in 82 days

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 3 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Protocol Support

TLSv1.3TLSv1.2TLSv1.1

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

70/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found

Domain Delete Lock Not Enabled

LOW

Domain can be deleted without additional verification

No DMARC Record

MEDIUM

DMARC policy not configured

Domain Registration Details

Domain Age
10 years(mature)
Expiry Risk
low(160 days)
Protection Level
basicDNSSEC OFF
Suspicious Indicators Detected
  • Privacy/proxy registration detected

DNS Records

A Records:64.90.53.108
Name Servers:
ns1.dreamhost.com
ns2.dreamhost.com
ns3.dreamhost.com
SOA:Serial: 2024060500, TTL: 300s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:229ms

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

20/100
Score

High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

HIGH

Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

Service Exposed: SSH

MEDIUM

Port 22 (SSH) is publicly accessible - SSH - Secure but can be brute-forced

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website is built with a custom or proprietary CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries and Google services for analytics and CAPTCHA. Hosting is provided by DreamHost, a reputable provider. The site loads multiple font variants from Typekit and uses asynchronous script loading to optimize performance. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility are good but could be enhanced with ARIA landmarks and better keyboard navigation cues. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, with some large images and scripts that could be optimized further. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from modernization in accessibility and security practices.
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