Tennessee research universities: security rankings

Security scores, grades, and the most common failures for 7 Tennessee research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 7
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

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

C 75

Average security score of 6 fully scanned Tennessee research university sites

10th

of 17 states, ranked by average security score

6 of 7

Tennessee research university sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 1, so they're listed without grades

B 85

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

How Tennessee security scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 6 fully scanned Tennessee research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

Distribution of 6 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.

  • Tennessee average
  • All education average
View the data table
How Tennessee 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 794
80 to 891
90 to 1000

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

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Tennessee research universities: 6 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. TennesseeB to C (70 to 89): 83% (5 sites)D to F (below 70): 17% (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
Tennessee research universities by security grade, compared with all education sites
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
Tennessee0% (0)83% (5)17% (1)
All education sites19% (505)79% (2,113)3% (69)

Top 3 Tennessee research university sites by security score

#1 in Tennessee · U.S. education rank 3

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville

B 87 security

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

#2 in Tennessee · U.S. education rank 5

Middle Tennessee State University

C 77 security

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security C
  • Usability C
  • Readability A

#3 in Tennessee · U.S. education rank 6

Tennessee Technological University

C 75 security

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

Most common security failures among Tennessee research university sites

Share of the 6 fully scanned Tennessee 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-Options83% (5 of 6 sites)
  2. Errors in the console83% (5 of 6 sites)
  3. Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD)17% (1 of 6 sites)
  4. Security.txt17% (1 of 6 sites)
View the data table
Most common security failures among Tennessee research university sites
CheckShare failingSites failing
X-Content-Type-Options83%5
Errors in the console83%5
Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD)17%1
Security.txt17%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.
  • Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD). The site uses a government-issued domain (.gov, .edu, or .mil). People cannot tell if your site is real government.
  • 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 Tennessee by security score

Research universities in Tennessee ranked by security score
Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 utk.edu
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville U.S. rank 3
7 of 8 checks pass B
2 mtsu.edu
Middle Tennessee State University U.S. rank 5
7 of 9 checks pass C
3 tntech.edu
Tennessee Technological University U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
3 memphis.edu
University of Memphis U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
3 vanderbilt.edu
Vanderbilt University U.S. rank 6
6 of 8 checks pass C
4 etsu.edu
East Tennessee State University U.S. rank 8
5 of 8 checks pass D
tnstate.edu
Tennessee State 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 -

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 1 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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