Showing Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites. All education sites
R1 and R2 universities in the Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, public and private together. Metro boundaries follow the Census definition, so a page can cross state lines.
A 90
Average security score of 5 fully scanned Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites
2nd
of 8 metro areas, ranked by average security score
5 of 7
Washington, dc-va-md-wv research university 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 Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV security scores are distributed
Smoothed distribution of the 5 fully scanned Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.
Distribution of 5 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.
- Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV average
- All education average
View the data table
| Score range | Sites |
|---|---|
| 0 to 9 | 0 |
| 10 to 19 | 0 |
| 20 to 29 | 0 |
| 30 to 39 | 0 |
| 40 to 49 | 0 |
| 50 to 59 | 0 |
| 60 to 69 | 0 |
| 70 to 79 | 1 |
| 80 to 89 | 2 |
| 90 to 100 | 2 |
Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research universities by security grade, compared with all education sites
Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research universities: 5 sites. All education: 2687 sites.
- A (90 to 100)
- B to C (70 to 89)
- D to F (below 70)
View the data table
| Group | A (90 to 100) | B to C (70 to 89) | D to F (below 70) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV | 40% (2) | 60% (3) | 0% (0) |
| All education sites | 19% (505) | 79% (2,113) | 3% (69) |
Top 3 Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites by security score
#1 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 1
Howard University
A 100 security
- Accessibility A
- Botability B
- Security A
- Usability D
- Readability F
#1 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 1
University of Maryland-College Park
A 100 security
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability F
#2 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 2
George Washington University
B 88 security
- Accessibility A
- Botability C
- Security B
- Usability A
- Readability F
What each check means
- Errors in the console. The page loads without JavaScript or network errors. Site may have hidden bugs that break features.
- X-Content-Type-Options. The site tells browsers not to guess the type of files it serves. Browsers might run dangerous files by mistake.
- Security.txt. The site has a security.txt file so researchers know how to report issues. Security researchers cannot report problems to you.
Research universities in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV by security score
| Rank | Site | Checks passed | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
howard.edu
Howard University U.S. rank 1 |
8 of 8 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
umd.edu
University of Maryland-College Park U.S. rank 1 |
8 of 8 checks pass | A |
| 2 |
gwu.edu
George Washington University U.S. rank 2 |
8 of 9 checks pass | B |
| 3 |
catholic.edu
The Catholic University of America U.S. rank 3 |
7 of 8 checks pass | B |
| 4 |
georgetown.edu
Georgetown University U.S. rank 6 |
6 of 8 checks pass | C |
|
american.edu
American University |
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't scan your site because it showed our bot a captcha or browser check instead of the page. Status 996 | - | |
|
gmu.edu
George Mason University |
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 | - |
About security
Secure your site and protect users with proper security practices.
Why it's important
Strong defenses prevent hackers from stealing personal information and other confidential data.
Risks
- Hackers can steal private information from your site.
Guidance
What we use to grade security:
- CISA Website Security
- 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA)
- CISA Cybersecurity Performance Goals
- RFC 9116
- OWASP Top 10
- U.S. Federal Website Standards
Standards
- Content security policy (CSP)
- HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
- security.txt
- X-Content-Type-Options
- Errors in the console
- Clickjacking mitigation
- Paste preventing inputs
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
- Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD)
Grades/scores
ScanGov
About this ranking
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.