Showing Virginia research university sites. All education sites
R1 and R2 universities in Virginia, public and private together.
A 93
Average security score of 5 fully scanned Virginia research university sites
1st
of 17 states, ranked by average security score
5 of 7
Virginia 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 Virginia security scores are distributed
Smoothed distribution of the 5 fully scanned Virginia 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.
- Virginia 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 | 0 |
| 80 to 89 | 3 |
| 90 to 100 | 2 |
Virginia research universities by security grade, compared with all education sites
Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Virginia 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 40% (2) | 60% (3) | 0% (0) |
| All education sites | 19% (505) | 79% (2,113) | 3% (69) |
Top 3 Virginia research university sites by security score
#1 in Virginia · U.S. education rank 1
Old Dominion University
A 100 security
- Accessibility B
- Botability B
- Security A
- Usability D
- Readability A
#1 in Virginia · U.S. education rank 1
University of Virginia-Main Campus
A 100 security
- Accessibility B
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability A
#2 in Virginia · U.S. education rank 2
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
B 88 security
- Accessibility A
- Botability D
- Security B
- Usability F
- Readability F
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.
- 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 Virginia by security score
| Rank | Site | Checks passed | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
odu.edu
Old Dominion University U.S. rank 1 |
8 of 8 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
virginia.edu
University of Virginia-Main Campus U.S. rank 1 |
8 of 8 checks pass | A |
| 2 |
vt.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University U.S. rank 2 |
8 of 9 checks pass | B |
| 2 |
wm.edu
William & Mary U.S. rank 2 |
8 of 9 checks pass | B |
| 3 |
vcu.edu
Virginia Commonwealth University U.S. rank 3 |
7 of 8 checks pass | B |
|
jmu.edu
|
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 404 | - | |
|
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 10/25/2026 and 10/28/2026. 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.