# BeaverCheck Audit Report — https://mit.edu

**Date:** April 16, 2026  
**URL:** https://mit.edu  
**Overall Grade:** C (75/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/e900d3bd-8634-4ab8-aae2-d1a2ea05c03e

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers
2. **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Security > Security Headers
3. **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — Security > Content Security Policy
4. **[WARNING]** 28 third-party resources (100% of weight) — Performance > Page Weight Inventory
5. **[WARNING]** Certificate expires soon (14 days remaining) — Security > TLS & Certificates

---

## Lighthouse Scores

| Category | Score |
|----------|-------|
| Performance | 53 |
| Accessibility | 90 |
| Best Practices | 100 |
| SEO | 92 |

---

## Security

### Security Headers (F — 10/100)

*2 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Strict-Transport-Security forces browsers to use HTTPS, preventing downgrade attacks. Add the header with a max-age of at least 1 year.
- **[WARNING]** X-Content-Type-Options header is missing — This header prevents MIME-type sniffing, which can lead to XSS attacks. Set it to 'nosniff'.
- **[WARNING]** X-Frame-Options header is missing — This header prevents clickjacking by controlling who can embed your page in a frame. Set it to DENY or SAMEORIGIN.
- **[WARNING]** Referrer-Policy header is missing — Controls how much referrer information is sent with requests. Set to 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin' or stricter.
- **[WARNING]** Permissions-Policy header is missing — Controls which browser features (camera, microphone, geolocation) are allowed. Set it to restrict unused features.
- **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — CSP is the most important header for preventing XSS attacks. See the CSP section for detailed analysis.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header is missing — COOP isolates your browsing context, preventing cross-origin side-channel attacks. Set to 'same-origin'.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — COEP prevents loading cross-origin resources without explicit permission. Required for SharedArrayBuffer and high-resolution timers.
- **[PASS]** X-Powered-By header is not present
- **[PASS]** Server header is present without version info

### Content Security Policy (F — 0/100)

*No enforcing CSP policy found*

- **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — CSP is the most effective defense against XSS attacks. Add a Content-Security-Policy header to restrict resource loading.

### TLS & Certificates (A — 90/100)

*TLS 1.2, 7 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** TLS 1.2 is used
- **[INFO]** TLS 1.3 is not negotiated — TLS 1.3 offers improved performance and security. Consider enabling it.
- **[PASS]** Strong cipher suite is used
- **[INFO]** HTTP/2 is not negotiated — HTTP/2 provides multiplexing and header compression for better performance.
- **[PASS]** Certificate is valid (expires in 14 days)
- **[WARNING]** Certificate expires soon (14 days remaining) — Renew the certificate before it expires to avoid browser warnings.
- **[PASS]** Certificate chain has 2 certificates
- **[PASS]** Certificate uses modern signature algorithm
- **[PASS]** Certificate covers 31 domain(s)
- **[PASS]** Certificate is issued by a trusted CA

### Cookie Security (A+ — 100/100)

*No cookies set — no cookie security risks*

- **[PASS]** No cookies set — no cookie security risks

---

## Advanced Security

### Subresource Integrity (F — 20/100)

*0 of 1 external resources have SRI*

- **[WARNING]** External script from www.googletagmanager.com lacks integrity attribute — Without SRI, if this CDN is compromised, attackers could inject malicious code.

### JS Library Vulnerabilities (A+ — 100/100)

*No known vulnerabilities*

- **[PASS]** No known JavaScript library vulnerabilities detected

### Information Leakage (A+ — 100/100)

*No exposures*

- **[INFO]** No security.txt found — Consider adding a security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt.
- **[PASS]** No sensitive files exposed

### Email Security (D — 50/100)

*DMARC: none*

- **[WARNING]** DMARC policy is none — monitoring only — This only monitors, it doesn't block spoofed emails. Change to p=quarantine or p=reject.

### Permissions-Policy (D — 40/100)

*No header set*

- **[WARNING]** No Permissions-Policy header — Consider adding a Permissions-Policy header to restrict browser feature access from embedded content.

### CORS Configuration (B — 80/100)

*No CORS headers*

- **[PASS]** No CORS headers present — secure default

---

## Performance

### Page Weight Budget (B — 77/100)

*1.3 MB transferred, 29 requests*

- **[PASS]** Page weighs 1.9 MB (1.3 MB transferred)
- **[WARNING]** JavaScript is 503 KB — consider code splitting or lazy loading — Large JavaScript bundles delay interactivity. Split code by route or defer non-critical scripts.
- **[PASS]** 29 HTTP requests
- **[INFO]** Estimated 0.27 g CO2 per page load

### Third-Party Impact (D — 50/100)

*100% third-party, 0 ms blocking*

- **[WARNING]** Third-party code accounts for 100% of page weight (1.3 MiB of 1.3 MiB)
- **[PASS]** Third-party blocking time is low (0 ms)

### Text Compression (A+ — 100/100)

*All text resources are compressed*

- **[PASS]** All text resources are compressed

### Image Optimization (B — 70/100)

*7 images, 0 KB saveable*

- **[WARNING]** https://web.mit.edu/files/images/202604/MIT-Brian-... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.

### JS Execution Cost (C — 60/100)

*1765ms total JS execution*

- **[WARNING]** https://web.mit.edu/themes/mit/assets/js/main.js?t...: 754ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://web.mit.edu/: 369ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Unattributable: 295ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-M8M...: 275ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** https://web.mit.edu/themes/mit/assets/css/main.css...: 72ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Third-party scripts: 1765ms (100% of total)

### Font Loading (A+ — 100/100)

*5 fonts (129 KB)*

- **[INFO]** 5 font(s) use font-display: swap (FOUT risk but functional)

### JS Bundles (C — 60/100)

*6 scripts, 252 KB unused*

- **[WARNING]** https://web.mit.edu/themes/mit/assets/js/main.js?t...: 184 KB unused (50%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[WARNING]** https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-M8M...: 67 KB unused (57%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[INFO]** Total unused JavaScript: 252 KB

### Resource Caching (A+ — 100/100)

*All resources properly cached*

- **[PASS]** No caching issues found

### Critical Rendering Path (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected

### Resource Hints (A+ — 100/100)

*No optimization needed*

- **[PASS]** No resource hint issues

### Page Weight Inventory (C — 60/100)

*29 resources · 1.3 MB · 252 KB savings available*

- **[WARNING]** Page weight 283 KB over 1MB target
- **[INFO]** ~252 KB of savings available
- **[WARNING]** 28 third-party resources (100% of weight)
- **[INFO]** 2 resources over 200KB

### Render-Blocking Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources detected*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected in <head>

### Third-Party Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No third-party resources detected*


---

## Content Quality

### Links (A — 95/100)

*62 links checked, 61 healthy, 1 broken*

- **[WARNING]** 61 of 62 links are healthy
- **[WARNING]** Broken link: https://tlecms.mit.edu/spotlight/honored-serve-thursday — Found in <link href>. Get "https://tlecms.mit.edu/spotlight/honored-serve-thursday": context deadline exceeded

### Mixed Content (A+ — 100/100)

*No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS.*

- **[PASS]** No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS

### Open Graph (B — 80/100)

*Open Graph tags are partially configured — some improvements recommended.*

- **[WARNING]** Missing og:image — The og:image tag provides a preview image for social sharing.
- **[INFO]** Missing twitter:card — Without twitter:card, Twitter falls back to Open Graph tags. Adding it gives you more control.

### Structured Data (C — 40/100)

*No structured data (JSON-LD) found.*

- **[INFO]** No structured data (JSON-LD) found — Adding structured data helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results.

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (A+ — 95/100)

*1 A records, 8 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
- **[INFO]** Single A record — no DNS redundancy — Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
- **[PASS]** Has 2 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
- **[PASS]** 8 nameserver(s) configured
- **[PASS]** 1 mail exchanger(s) configured
- **[INFO]** CAA records not checked — CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
- **[PASS]** SPF record present in TXT
- **[PASS]** DNS resolution time: 8 ms

### Redirect Chain (A — 90/100)

*1 redirect(s), 202 ms total*

- **[PASS]** Single redirect
- **[INFO]** Uses 302 (temporary) redirect — If permanent, use 301 instead.
- **[INFO]** Cross-domain redirect detected

### IPv6 Readiness (A+ — 100/100)

*IPv6 reachable (1 ms)*

- **[PASS]** IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2a02:26f0:1180:183::255e, 2a02:26f0:1180:197::255e

### Crawlability (B — 80/100)

*robots.txt present, no sitemap*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[INFO]** No sitemap.xml found — A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.
- **[INFO]** robots.txt does not reference a sitemap — Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

### URL Variants (D — 50/100)

*www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS*

- **[CRITICAL]** Both www and non-www versions serve content
- **[CRITICAL]** HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS

### Domain Intelligence (A+ — 100/100)

*mit.edu — 41 years, 5 months old*

- **[PASS]** Domain registered until Jul 31, 2026 (3 months remaining)

---

## Compliance

### WCAG Compliance (A+ — 100/100)

*No testable criteria*


### Cookie Consent & Privacy (B — 80/100)

*No consent signals detected*

- **[WARNING]** No privacy policy link detected — A privacy policy page is recommended for transparency and may be legally required.
- **[INFO]** No terms of service link detected
- **[INFO]** No cookie consent banner detected
- **[INFO]** This is an automated check, not legal advice — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators of consent management. This does not constitute a legal compliance assessment. Consult a privacy professional for GDPR/CCPA compliance.

### Language & i18n (A — 90/100)

*Lang attribute present*

- **[PASS]** <html lang> attribute is present
- **[PASS]** <html lang> value is valid
- **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header
- **[INFO]** Language signals are inconsistent — The <html lang> attribute and Content-Language header should agree.

### Readability & Typography (A+ — 100/100)

*Font sizes and tap targets checked*


### Viewport Configuration (A+ — 100/100)

*Viewport properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Viewport meta tag is present
- **[PASS]** width=device-width is set
- **[PASS]** User zooming is allowed

### Third-Party Trackers (C — 55/100)

*2 trackers detected*

- **[INFO]** 2 third-party trackers detected — Found 1 analytics, 0 advertising, 0 marketing, 1 tag manager trackers.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no cookie policy found — This page loads 2 trackers but no cookie policy was detected. GDPR requires disclosure when using tracking cookies.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no privacy policy found — Most data protection regulations require a privacy policy when collecting user data via trackers.

### Cookie & Tracker Inventory (A+ — 100/100)

*0 cookies · 2 trackers · 0 pre-consent*

- **[INFO]** 2 third-party tracker(s) detected on page

---

## Legal

### Legal Page Ecosystem (D — 45/100)

*2 of 7 expected legal pages detected*

- **[PASS]** Privacy Policy detected — Found at /privacy, linked from footer.
- **[WARNING]** Terms of Service not detected — No link matching common Terms of Service URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Terms of Service, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Cookie Policy not detected — No link matching common Cookie Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Cookie Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[PASS]** Accessibility Statement detected — Found at /accessibility, linked from footer.
- **[INFO]** DMCA / Copyright Notice not detected — No link matching common DMCA / Copyright Notice URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a DMCA / Copyright Notice, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Refund / Returns Policy not detected — No link matching common Refund / Returns Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Refund / Returns Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Acceptable Use Policy not detected — No link matching common Acceptable Use Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Acceptable Use Policy, especially those collecting user data.

### Copyright Notice (C — 55/100)

*No copyright notice detected*

- **[INFO]** No copyright notice detected — No copyright notice detected in the page content. While not legally required in most jurisdictions (copyright exists automatically), a notice is standard practice and signals site ownership.

### Regulatory Indicators

*2 regulatory indicator(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** This is a technical scan, not a legal assessment — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators that may suggest regulatory relevance. This is not a compliance audit and should not be relied upon for legal decisions. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance assessments.
- **[INFO]** GDPR indicators detected (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting GDPR may be relevant: Privacy policy page found. EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs collection and processing of personal data of EU residents.
- **[INFO]** ADA indicators detected (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting ADA may be relevant: Accessibility statement page found. Americans with Disabilities Act / Section 508 — requires digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

### Third-Party Data Sharing

*1 third-party service(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** Data inventory for transparency purposes — This inventory identifies third-party services that receive data from your site visitors. Under regulations like GDPR (Article 30), maintaining records of data processing activities is commonly considered a best practice. This automated scan provides a starting point — it may not capture all data flows.
- **[INFO]** 1 third-party services across 1 categories — 1 third-party services detected across 1 categories: Tag Management (1). Each of these services receives some user data from your site visitors.
- **[INFO]** Google Tag Manager (Tag Management) — Detected via script URL. Typically collects: Orchestrates other tracking scripts, Page views. Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy. Data Processing Agreement available.

### Compliance Badges (C — 55/100)

*0 compliance badge(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** No compliance badges detected — No recognized compliance certification badges or seals were found. This is common — many sites do not display compliance badges.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (B — 80/100)

*Akamai*

- **[PASS]** Site is served via Akamai CDN

### HTTP Caching (F — 30/100)

*No cache headers*

- **[WARNING]** No Cache-Control header found — Browsers will use heuristic caching, which can be unpredictable. Set explicit cache headers.

### Transport Security (B — 75/100)

*HTTP/3, HSTS, and TLS version analysis*

- **[INFO]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) not advertised — HTTP/3 eliminates head-of-line blocking. If your CDN supports it, consider enabling it.
- **[WARNING]** Missing Strict-Transport-Security header — HSTS tells browsers to only use HTTPS, preventing SSL stripping attacks.

---

## Accessibility

### Landmark Structure (A+ — 95/100)

*4 landmarks*

- **[PASS]** <main> landmark present
- **[PASS]** 1 <nav> landmark(s) found
- **[INFO]** No banner (header) landmark
- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link present

### Heading Hierarchy (B — 70/100)

*14 headings, 2 skip(s)*

- **[PASS]** Single H1 present
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H1 → H4 (missing H2) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H2 → H4 (missing H3) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.

### Alt Text Quality (A+ — 100/100)

*All 7 images OK*

- **[PASS]** 7 image(s) with good alt text

### Form Accessibility (A+ — 100/100)

*All 1 controls labeled*

- **[PASS]** 1 control(s) properly labeled

### Link & Button Quality (A — 88/100)

*75 links, 2 buttons — all OK*

- **[WARNING]** 20 link(s) open in new tab without warning — Add '(opens in new tab)' to link text or aria-label.
- **[PASS]** 55 link(s) with descriptive text

---

## UX

### 404 Error Page (B — 80/100)

*HTTP 404, custom page*

- **[PASS]** Correct 404 status code returned
- **[PASS]** Custom styled 404 page
- **[PASS]** Navigation links present on 404 page
- **[PASS]** Homepage link present on 404 page

### Favicon & Branding (A — 90/100)

*6 icon(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** favicon.ico present at site root
- **[PASS]** HTML icon links detected
- **[PASS]** Apple touch icon present
- **[PASS]** SVG favicon detected — scales perfectly to any size
- **[PASS]** Multiple icon sizes detected

### Web Manifest (F — 35/100)

*Valid manifest*

- **[WARNING]** No name or short_name — Add a name field to identify the app.
- **[PASS]** 192x192 icon present
- **[PASS]** 512x512 icon present

### Dark Mode Support (D — 40/100)

*No dark mode signals*

- **[INFO]** No dark mode signals detected — Consider adding CSS with @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) and <meta name='color-scheme' content='light dark'>.
- **[INFO]** Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles — External CSS files may contain prefers-color-scheme rules not visible to this scan.

### Print Stylesheet (D — 40/100)

*No print styles*

- **[INFO]** No print-specific styles detected — When users print this page, they get the screen layout including navigation and non-essential elements. Add @media print rules to hide navigation and optimize layout for paper.

### Navigation UX (F — 30/100)

*1 navigation pattern(s)*

- **[PASS]** Skip navigation link detected
- **[PASS]** 1 navigation landmark(s) detected

---

## SEO

### Canonical URL (A — 85/100)

*Minor issues*

- **[PASS]** Canonical tag present
- **[WARNING]** Canonical does not match final URL (https://web.mit.edu/)
- **[INFO]** Canonical points to a different domain

### Meta Tags (A+ — 100/100)

*Title optimized*

- **[PASS]** Page title is set
- **[PASS]** Title length (43 chars) is optimal
- **[PASS]** Title and H1 are well-aligned

### Content Depth (B — 80/100)

*472 words, Very Difficult*

- **[PASS]** Page has 472 words of content
- **[INFO]** Reading level: Very Difficult (grade 15)

### Internal Links (A+ — 100/100)

*42 internal, 33 external*

- **[PASS]** 42 internal links (56%)
- **[PASS]** 100% of links use descriptive anchor text
- **[INFO]** 42 internal / 33 external links

### Image SEO (A+ — 100/100)

*7 images, 7 descriptive filenames*

- **[PASS]** All images have descriptive filenames

### Hreflang

*0 hreflang tags*


---

## Sustainability

### CO2 Per Page Load (A — 85/100)

*0.36g CO2 per view*

- **[PASS]** 0.36g CO2 per page view — This page transfers 1.3 MB, producing an estimated 0.36g of CO2 per visit using the Sustainable Web Design model (v4). Breakdown: data center 0.07g, network 0.06g, end-user device 0.23g.
- **[INFO]** At 10,000 monthly views: 43.4 kg CO2/year — With 10,000 page views per month, this page would generate approximately 43.4 kg of CO2 annually — equivalent to charging 5420 smartphones.

### Green Hosting (D — 40/100)

*Not green*

- **[INFO]** No confirmed renewable energy commitment detected — Consider providers like Cloudflare, Google Cloud, or Vercel that match 100% of their energy use with renewables.
- **[INFO]** Akamai: Committed to 50% renewable by 2030
- **[INFO]** Green hosting status based on known provider commitments — Green hosting detection uses a curated database of provider renewable energy commitments. This is not a real-time verification. For authoritative checks, visit thegreenwebfoundation.org.

### Repeat Visit Weight (A+ — 100/100)

*99% cached*

- **[PASS]** 99% reduction on repeat visits — Returning visitors download only 12 KB (vs 1306 KB first visit). 28 of 29 resources are served from browser cache, saving 0.36g CO2 per repeat visit.
- **[INFO]** Repeat visit: 0.00g CO2 (first visit: 0.36g)

### Carbon Budget (A — 85/100)

*26th percentile*

- **[PASS]** 0.36g CO2 — below the sustainability target of 0.50g — Cleaner than an estimated 74% of websites analyzed. This page meets the Web Sustainability Guidelines target.
- **[INFO]** Estimated 26th percentile — Compared to: top 10% = 0.20g, target = 0.50g, median = 0.60g per page view.

### Transfer Efficiency (B — 80/100)

*81% efficient*

- **[INFO]** Transfer efficiency: 81% — An estimated 251 KB (19%) could be eliminated: 0 KB via better compression, 0 KB via modern image formats, 251 KB of unused JavaScript. This wasted data produces 0.07g of unnecessary CO2 per page view.

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*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/e900d3bd-8634-4ab8-aae2-d1a2ea05c03e*