South Dakota college websites: security rankings

Security scores, grades, and the most common failures for 13 public and 4 private college and university websites in South Dakota, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 17
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing South Dakota college and university sites. All education sites

Public colleges and universities in South Dakota are ranked and averaged together; private nonprofit institutions are listed below with their own average.

B 85

Average security score of 11 fully scanned South Dakota public college sites

6th

of 48 states and territories, ranked by average security score

11 of 13

South dakota public college 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 South Dakota security scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 11 fully scanned South Dakota public college sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • South Dakota 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 793
80 to 894
90 to 1003

South Dakota by security grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. South Dakota: 11 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. South Dakota
  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)
South Dakota27% (3)64% (7)9% (1)
All education sites19% (505)79% (2,113)3% (69)

Top 3 South Dakota public college sites by security score

#1 in South Dakota · U.S. education rank 1

Dakota State University

A 100 security

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

#1 in South Dakota · U.S. education rank 1

Northern State University

A 100 security

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

#1 in South Dakota · U.S. education rank 1

Sinte Gleska University

A 100 security

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

Most common security failures among South Dakota public college sites

Share of the 11 fully scanned South Dakota public college sites failing each check. A site can fail more than one check. Each check links to its standard and how to fix it.

  1. Errors in the console55%
  2. X-Content-Type-Options45%
  3. Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD)9%
  4. Security.txt9%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Errors in the console55%6
X-Content-Type-Options45%5
Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD)9%1
Security.txt9%1

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.
  • 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.

South Dakota public 4-year institutions by security score

9 sites, 7 fully scanned, average security score 89 (B). Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 dsu.edu
Dakota State University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 northern.edu
Northern State University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
1 sintegleska.edu
Sinte Gleska University U.S. rank 1 		8 of 8 checks pass A
2 bhsu.edu
Black Hills State University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 sdstate.edu
South Dakota State University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
3 sdsmt.edu
U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
3 usd.edu
University of South Dakota U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
olc.edu
Oglala Lakota College 		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 -
swcollege.edu
Sisseton Wahpeton College 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -

South Dakota public 2-year institutions by security score

4 sites, 4 fully scanned. Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 lakeareatech.edu
Lake Area Technical College U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
1 wdt.edu
Western Dakota Technical College U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 mitchelltech.edu
Mitchell Technical College U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
3 southeasttech.edu
Southeast Technical College U.S. rank 7 		6 of 9 checks pass D

South Dakota private nonprofit institutions by security score

4 sites, 4 fully scanned. Ranked among themselves. Not part of the public average above.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 augie.edu
Augustana University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
1 kairos.edu
Kairos University U.S. rank 3 		7 of 8 checks pass B
2 ilt.edu
Institute of Lutheran Theology U.S. rank 6 		6 of 8 checks pass C
2 mountmarty.edu
Mount Marty 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 10/25/2026 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 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.

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