Iowa college websites: security rankings

Security scores, grades, and the most common failures for 18 public and 31 private college and university websites in Iowa, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 49
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Public colleges and universities in Iowa are ranked and averaged together; private nonprofit institutions are listed below with their own average.

B 82

Average security score of 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites

9th

of 48 states and territories, ranked by average security score

16 of 18

Iowa public college sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 2, so they're listed without grades

B 85

Average security score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites

How Iowa security scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

Distribution of 16 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.

  • Iowa average
  • All education average
View the data table
How Iowa security scores are distributed
Score rangeSites
0 to 90
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 490
50 to 590
60 to 691
70 to 798
80 to 895
90 to 1002

Iowa by security grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Iowa: 16 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. IowaA (90 to 100): 13% (2 sites)B to C (70 to 89): 81% (13 sites)D to F (below 70): 6% (1 sites)
  2. All education sitesA (90 to 100): 19% (505 sites)B to C (70 to 89): 79% (2,113 sites)D to F (below 70): 3% (69 sites)
  • A (90 to 100)
  • B to C (70 to 89)
  • D to F (below 70)
View the data table
Iowa by security grade, compared with all education sites
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
Iowa13% (2)81% (13)6% (1)
All education sites19% (505)79% (2,113)3% (69)

Top 3 Iowa public college sites by security score

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

Ellsworth Community College

A 100 security

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability B
  • Security A
  • Usability A
  • Readability F

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

University of Iowa

A 100 security

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security A
  • Usability B
  • Readability A

#2 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 3

Des Moines Area Community College

B 87 security

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security B
  • Usability A
  • Readability A

Most common security failures among Iowa public college sites

Share of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites failing each check. A site can fail more than one check. Each check links to its standard and how to fix it.

  1. X-Content-Type-Options69% (11 of 16 sites)
  2. Errors in the console63% (10 of 16 sites)
  3. Security.txt19% (3 of 16 sites)
View the data table
Most common security failures among Iowa public college sites
CheckShare failingSites failing
X-Content-Type-Options69%11
Errors in the console63%10
Security.txt19%3

What each check means

  • X-Content-Type-Options. The site tells browsers not to guess the type of files it serves. Browsers might run dangerous files by mistake.
  • Errors in the console. The page loads without JavaScript or network errors. Site may have hidden bugs that break features.
  • Security.txt. The site has a security.txt file so researchers know how to report issues. Security researchers cannot report problems to you.

Iowa public 4-year institutions by security score

3 sites, 3 fully scanned. Part of the headline average.

Iowa public 4-year institutions ranked by security score
Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 uiowa.edu
University of Iowa U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
2 iastate.edu
Iowa State University U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
2 uni.edu
University of Northern Iowa U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B

Iowa public 2-year institutions by security score

15 sites, 13 fully scanned, average security score 79 (C). Part of the headline average.

Iowa public 2-year institutions ranked by security score
Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 iavalley.edu
Ellsworth Community College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
2 dmacc.edu
Des Moines Area Community College U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
2 iowalakes.edu
Iowa Lakes Community College U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
2 niacc.edu
North Iowa Area Community College U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 eicc.edu
Eastern Iowa Community College District U.S. rank 5
7 of 9 checks pass C
3 indianhills.edu
Indian Hills Community College U.S. rank 5
7 of 9 checks pass C
3 nicc.edu
Northeast Iowa Community College U.S. rank 5
7 of 9 checks pass C
4 iowacentral.edu
Iowa Central Community College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
4 iwcc.edu
Iowa Western Community College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
4 kirkwood.edu
Kirkwood Community College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
4 swcciowa.edu
Southwestern Community College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
4 witcc.edu
Western Iowa Tech Community College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 scciowa.edu
Southeastern Community College U.S. rank 7
6 of 9 checks pass D
hawkeyecollege.edu
Hawkeye Community College
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -
nwicc.edu
Northwest Iowa Community College
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 999 -

Iowa private nonprofit institutions by security score

31 sites, 31 fully scanned, average security score 88 (B). Ranked among themselves. Not part of the public average above.

Iowa private nonprofit institutions ranked by security score
Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 allencollege.edu
Allen College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 briarcliff.edu
Briar Cliff University U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 central.edu
Central College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 cornellcollege.edu
Cornell College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 dwci.edu
Divine Word College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 grandview.edu
Grand View University U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 grinnell.edu
Grinnell College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 stlukescollege.edu
St Luke's College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 uiu.edu
Upper Iowa University U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
1 wartburg.edu
Wartburg College U.S. rank 1
8 of 8 checks pass A
2 dordt.edu
Dordt University U.S. rank 2
8 of 9 checks pass B
3 bvu.edu
Buena Vista University U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 clarke.edu
Clarke University U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 dmu.edu
Des Moines University-Osteopathic Medical Center U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 drake.edu
Drake University U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 emmaus.edu
Emmaus Bible College U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 faith.edu
Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 graceland.edu
Graceland University-Lamoni U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 nwciowa.edu
Northwestern College U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 palmer.edu
Palmer College of Chiropractic U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 sau.edu
Saint Ambrose University U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
3 wartburgseminary.edu
Wartburg Theological Seminary U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
4 miu.edu
Maharishi International University U.S. rank 5
7 of 9 checks pass C
5 coe.edu
Coe College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 loras.edu
Loras College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 luther.edu
Luther College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 morningside.edu
Morningside University U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 mtmercy.edu
Mount Mercy University U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 simpson.edu
Simpson College U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 dbq.edu
University of Dubuque U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
5 wmpenn.edu
William Penn University U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C

About this data

ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. We could not fully scan 2 sites. They did not respond, blocked the scanner, or sent no page content. They appear in the table without grades, with their scan status, and are left out of every figure. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.

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