Massachusetts research universities: security rankings

Security scores, grades, and the most common failures for 12 Massachusetts research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 12
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing Massachusetts research university sites. All education sites

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

A 93

Average security score of 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites

1st

of 17 states, ranked by average security score

12 of 12

Massachusetts research university sites fully scanned

B 85

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

How Massachusetts security scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • Massachusetts 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 690
70 to 791
80 to 895
90 to 1006

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

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Massachusetts research universities: 12 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. Massachusetts
  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)
Massachusetts50% (6)50% (6)0% (0)
All education sites19% (505)79% (2,113)3% (69)

Top 3 Massachusetts research university sites by security score

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

Boston College

A 100 security

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

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

Northeastern University

A 100 security

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

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

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

A 100 security

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

Most common security failures among Massachusetts research university sites

Share of the 12 fully scanned Massachusetts 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-Options50%
  2. Errors in the console8%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
X-Content-Type-Options50%6
Errors in the console8%1

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.

Research universities in Massachusetts by security score

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 bc.edu
Boston College U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 northeastern.edu
Northeastern University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 umass.edu
University of Massachusetts-Amherst U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 umb.edu
University of Massachusetts-Boston U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 uml.edu
University of Massachusetts-Lowell U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
2 bu.edu
Boston University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 clarku.edu
Clark University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 harvard.edu
Harvard University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 web.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 umassd.edu
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 tufts.edu
Tufts 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. 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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