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Is wsu.edu a Scam? Security Check Results - Washington State University Reviews

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Is wsu.edu Safe? Security Analysis for Washington State University

Check if wsu.edu is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

EducationUnited Stateslarge
WordPress 5.6.2jQuery 1.12.4Google Tag ManagerGoogle AnalyticsFacebook Pixel+2 more
Analyzed 9/7/2025Completed 7:05:33 AM
65
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

AI Summary

Washington State University (WSU) is a prominent public research university with multiple campuses across Washington state and a global online presence. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for students, faculty, researchers, and the public, offering information on academics, research, admissions, and campus life. The site is professionally designed with consistent branding and rich content that reflects WSU's mission and services. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel for analytics and marketing. While the site is mobile-optimized and accessible, some technical improvements are recommended, such as updating legacy libraries and enhancing security headers. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced, but lacks explicit security policies and vulnerability disclosures. Privacy compliance is basic, with no visible cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the domain registration data aligns well with the university's identity, supporting legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Detected Technologies

WordPress 5.6.2jQuery 1.12.4Google Tag ManagerGoogle AnalyticsFacebook PixelCurator.ioWSU Design System CSS and JS

🧠AI Business Intelligence

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

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

WSU operates as a large educational institution focused on delivering higher education and research services. Its market position is strong regionally and nationally, supported by multiple campuses and extensive academic offerings. The business model centers on public education, research funding, and community engagement. The website reflects a mature digital presence with integrated marketing and analytics tools. Partnerships with service providers like Workday and foundation sites are evident. Growth indicators include recent news updates and scholarship funding announcements. The university targets prospective and current students, faculty, and research collaborators. Strategic observations suggest a focus on expanding online education and maintaining a robust research funding pipeline.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposed sensitive data. However, the use of an outdated jQuery version introduces potential vulnerabilities. The absence of explicit security headers and lack of published security policies or incident response information indicate gaps in security best practices. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, limiting transparency for security researchers. The site collects user data via forms and tracking scripts but lacks visible cookie consent mechanisms, which may impact GDPR compliance. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a university site but would benefit from modernization and enhanced transparency.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Update jQuery and other JavaScript libraries to current secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Washington State University

Description:

Washington State University —WSU is a top research university dedicated to solving problems and improving lives with 6 campuses, 11 academic colleges, extension offices in all 39 Washington counties and on the Colville Reservation, and 4 research and extension centers.

Key Services:
Undergraduate and graduate educationResearch programsExtension and community outreachOnline education
Content Quality:

excellent

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
WordPress 5.6.2jQuery 1.12.4Google Tag ManagerGoogle AnalyticsFacebook PixelCurator.ioWSU Design System CSS and JS
Frameworks:
WordPress
Platforms:
WordPress CMS
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

good

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
75/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by URLs)
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel with async loading
  • No visible exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No deprecated or vulnerable libraries explicitly detected

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsGoogle Tag ManagerFacebook Pixel
Tracking Level:extensive
Privacy Compliance:basic

Advertising & Marketing

Ad Networks:
Sitescout
Tracking Pixels:
Facebook PixelSimpli.fi
Marketing Tools:
Curator.io
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 a professionally designed, large-scale university site.

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

50/100
Score

Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

HIGH

Forces HTTPS connections

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

Missing Referrer-Policy header

LOW

Controls referrer information sent with requests

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

35/100
Score

No Privacy Policy found

HIGH

GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

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

Third-party services without privacy policy

HIGH

Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Cloudflare

GDPR Compliance Analysis

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

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

17/100
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

📧Email Security

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

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

85/100
Score

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

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
SPF Details
Record:
v=spf1 a:valid-senders.wsu.edu ip4:104.245.209.192/26 ip4:104.47.0.0/17 ip4:13.111.0.0/16 ip4:136.147.135.0/24 ip4:136.147.176.0/24 ip4:136.147.182.0/24 ip4:139.60.152.0/22 ip4:147.160.158.0/24 ip4:149.72.0.0/16 include:_spf1.wsu.edu -all
DNS Lookups:2/10
Policy:-all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:k2(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:selector1(1296-bit rsa)
Selector:selector2(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:mail(1296-bit rsa)
Selector:dkim(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:s1(1440-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:reject
Aggregate Reports:dmarc_wsu@wsu.edu
Forensic Reports:dmarc_wsu@wsu.edu

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

62/100
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 44 days

Mixed Content Detected

MEDIUM

1 resources loaded over insecure HTTP

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

85/100
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 Registration Details

Expiry Risk
none(1057 days)

DNS Records

A Records:192.94.21.68
Name Servers:
ns1.wsu.eduDNS only
ns2.wsu.eduDNS only
MX Records:
10: mxa-0007b301.gslb.pphosted.com
10: mxb-0007b301.gslb.pphosted.com
SOA:Serial: 2025090501, TTL: 3600s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:223ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 a:valid-senders.wsu.edu ip4:104.245.209.192/26 ip4:104.47.0.0/17 ip4:13.111.0.0/16 ip4:136.147.135.0/24 ip4:136.147.176.0/24 ip4:136.147.182.0/24 ip4:139.60.152.0/22 ip4:147.160.158.0/24 ip4:149.72.0.0/16 include:_spf1.wsu.edu -all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website is powered by WordPress 5.6.2 with a custom WSU design system and uses multiple Google Tag Manager containers and Facebook Pixels for analytics and marketing. The site loads asynchronously for performance and includes responsive design elements for mobile optimization. While the tech stack is modern in parts, the presence of legacy jQuery 1.12.4 indicates some technical debt. Performance is moderate with room for improvement. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, supporting usability. SEO is supported by meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting details are not explicit but likely university-managed or third-party hosting. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from updates to reduce risk and improve performance.
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