California research universities: security rankings

Security scores, grades, and the most common failures for 25 California research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 25
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing California research university sites. All education sites

R1 and R2 universities in California, public and private together.

B 87

Average security score of 22 fully scanned California research university sites

5th

of 17 states, ranked by average security score

22 of 25

California research university sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 3, so they're listed without grades

B 85

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

How California security scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 22 fully scanned California research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • California average
  • All education average
View the data table
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 795
80 to 8910
90 to 1006

California research universities by security grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. California research universities: 22 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. California
  2. All education sites
  • A (90 to 100)
  • B to C (70 to 89)
  • D to F (below 70)
View the data table
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
California27% (6)68% (15)5% (1)
All education sites19% (505)79% (2,113)3% (69)

Top 3 California research university sites by security score

#1 in California · U.S. education rank 1

Azusa Pacific University

A 100 security

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

#1 in California · U.S. education rank 1

California Institute of Technology

A 100 security

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

#1 in California · U.S. education rank 1

California State University-Long Beach

A 100 security

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

Most common security failures among California research university sites

Share of the 22 fully scanned California research university 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-Options59%
  2. Errors in the console32%
  3. Security.txt14%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
X-Content-Type-Options59%13
Errors in the console32%7
Security.txt14%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.

Research universities in California by security score

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 apu.edu
Azusa Pacific University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 caltech.edu
California Institute of Technology U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 csulb.edu
California State University-Long Beach U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 lmu.edu
Loyola Marymount University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 stanford.edu
Stanford University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 sandiego.edu
University of San Diego U.S. rank 1 		9 of 9 checks pass A
2 ucr.edu
University of California-Riverside U.S. rank 2 		8 of 9 checks pass B
3 fresnostate.edu
California State University-Fresno U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 csusb.edu
California State University-San Bernardino U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 llu.edu
Loma Linda University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 sdsu.edu
San Diego State University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 berkeley.edu
University of California-Berkeley U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 ucdavis.edu
University of California-Davis U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 uci.edu
University of California-Irvine U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 ucsb.edu
University of California-Santa Barbara U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 usc.edu
University of Southern California U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
4 ucsd.edu
University of California-San Diego U.S. rank 5 		7 of 9 checks pass C
5 csueastbay.edu
California State University-East Bay U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
5 cgu.edu
Claremont Graduate University U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
5 sfsu.edu
San Francisco State University U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
5 ucla.edu
University of California-Los Angeles U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
6 chapman.edu
Chapman University U.S. rank 7 		6 of 9 checks pass D
fullerton.edu
California State University-Fullerton 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -
ucmerced.edu
University of California-Merced 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 403 -
ucsc.edu
University of California-Santa Cruz 		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 -

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 10/25/2026 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 3 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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