Aitkin County
90/100
#1 of 87 in Minnesota
100/100
8 of 8 checks passed
Website
89/100
10 of 11 checks passed
Domain
70/100
3 of 5 checks passed
What to fix first
Email100/100
Stops people from sending fake email that looks like it came from the county.
Pass Fake email gets blocked (DMARC)Fake email using the county's address gets rejected (p=reject). 20/20
Why it matters. A DMARC policy tells Gmail, Outlook and every other mail service what to do with email that claims to be from the county but isn't. With p=reject the fake mail is thrown away. With p=quarantine it goes to spam. With p=none nothing happens to it.
What we saw
_dmarc.aitkincountymn.gov: v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; ruf=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; fo=1
Pass Made-up subdomains are covered tooMail from made-up subdomains is rejected too. 3/3
Why it matters. Scammers can send from addresses like billing.aitkincountymn.gov that the county never set up. The DMARC record decides what happens to that mail with its sp= setting.
What we saw
_dmarc.aitkincountymn.gov: v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; ruf=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; fo=1
Pass The county gets DMARC reportsThe county collects DMARC reports. 3/3
Why it matters. Reports show every server sending mail in the county's name, real or fake. They are how the county knows it is safe to turn on blocking.
What we saw
_dmarc.aitkincountymn.gov: v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; ruf=mailto:mis@co.aitkin.mn.us; fo=1
Pass Approved mail servers are listed (SPF)SPF lists the approved servers and says every other server is fake (-all). 8/8
Why it matters. SPF lists the servers allowed to send the county's email. Ending it with -all tells receivers that every other server is fake.
What we saw
v=spf1 mx:zixvpm.aitkincountymn.gov include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.zixsmbhosted.com -all
Pass SPF stays under the 10 lookup limitSPF needs 3 of the 10 allowed lookups. 2/2
Why it matters. Mail services stop reading an SPF record after 10 lookups. Past that, the whole record counts as broken and stops protecting anything.
What we saw
v=spf1 mx:zixvpm.aitkincountymn.gov include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.zixsmbhosted.com -all
Pass Outgoing mail is signed (DKIM)Found DKIM signing keys (selector1, selector2). 3/3
Why it matters. DKIM adds a signature to every message, so receivers can tell it really came from the county and wasn't changed on the way. Keys live under names the county picks, so this check only looks at the common ones. Not finding a key never lowers the score.
What we saw
selector1._domainkey.aitkincountymn.gov, selector2._domainkey.aitkincountymn.gov
Pass Incoming mail must be encrypted (MTA-STS)Other mail servers must use encryption to deliver to the county (mode: enforce). 4/4
Why it matters. Without MTA-STS, someone in the middle of the network can quietly strip the encryption off mail sent to the county and read it. MTA-STS in enforce mode tells sending servers to refuse that.
What we saw
_mta-sts.aitkincountymn.gov: v=STSv1; id=2026101301 version: STSv1 mode: enforce mx: aitkincountymn-gov.mail.protection.outlook.com max_age: 604800
Pass The county hears about failed encrypted deliveryFailed encrypted delivery gets reported to the county. 2/2
Why it matters. TLS reports tell the county when other servers could not deliver mail to it securely, which can mean a broken certificate or an attack.
What we saw
_smtp._tls.aitkincountymn.gov: v=TLSRPTv1; rua=mailto:tlsrpt@aitkincountymn.gov
Website89/100
Keeps visits to the county website private and hard to tamper with.
Pass The website uses HTTPS with a valid certificateThe website loads over HTTPS with a trusted certificate. 10/10
Why it matters. HTTPS keeps what visitors read and type on the site private, and proves they reached the real county site. A broken or expired certificate shows people a scary warning.
What we saw
https://www.aitkincountymn.gov/
Pass http:// visitors are sent to https://http:// visitors are sent to the https:// site. 4/4
Why it matters. People still type addresses without https. If the plain version of the site loads, those visits travel unprotected.
What we saw
http://www.aitkincountymn.gov/ -> https://www.aitkincountymn.gov/
Pass Browsers are told to always use HTTPS (HSTS)Browsers are told to use HTTPS only, for 365 days at a time. 5/5
Why it matters. HSTS makes browsers remember to use the secure site, so nobody on public Wi-Fi can trick them into the insecure one first.
What we saw
max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
Pass The newest encryption (TLS 1.3) worksTLS 1.3 works. 3/3
Why it matters. TLS 1.3 is faster and drops the weak options older versions allowed.
Fail Retired encryption (TLS 1.0 and 1.1) is turned offTLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 still work. Both were retired in 2020. 0/4
Why it matters. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 have known weaknesses and every major browser dropped them in 2020. Leaving them on only helps attackers.
How to fix it. Set the server to accept TLS 1.2 and 1.3 only.
Pass The certificate isn't about to expireThe certificate is good for 62 more days. 2/2
Why it matters. When a certificate expires, every visitor sees a security warning and many can't reach the site at all.
What we saw
Expires 2026-12-15, issued by Google Trust Services
Pass Scripts are limited (Content Security Policy)The site sends a Content Security Policy that limits where scripts can come from. 2/2
Why it matters. A Content Security Policy lists where scripts on the site may come from. If an attacker slips code into a page, the browser refuses to run it.
What we saw
default-src 'self' https://www.aitkincountymn.gov https://aitkincountymn.gov; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval' https://www.aitkincountymn.gov https://aitkincountymn.gov https://cse.google.com https://www.google.com https://www.gstatic.com https://cdn.jsdelivr.net https://code.jquery.com https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com https://static.cloudflareinsights.com https://static.ctctcdn.com https://clients1.google.com https://partner.googleadservices.com; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://www.aitkincountymn.gov https://aitkincountymn.gov https://fonts.googleapis.com https://cdn.jsdelivr.net https://
Pass Browsers don't guess file typesBrowsers are told not to guess file types. 1/1
Why it matters. Without this header a browser may run an uploaded file as a script just because it looks like one.
What we saw
nosniff
Pass Other sites can't frame the county siteThe policy limits which sites may frame the page. 1/1
Why it matters. A fake site can load the real county site in a hidden frame and trick people into clicking buttons they can't see.
What we saw
frame-ancestors 'self'
Pass Visitors' page addresses aren't shared with other sitesFull page addresses aren't shared with other sites. 1/1
Why it matters. A referrer policy stops the full address of the page someone was on, which can include search terms or case numbers, from being sent to other sites.
What we saw
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Pass Security problems can be reported (security.txt)The site says who to contact about security problems. 2/2
Why it matters. A security.txt file tells people who find a problem with the county's systems exactly who to tell. Without it, many reports never arrive.
What we saw
Contact: mailto:mis@aitkincountymn.gov
Domain70/100
Protects the county's internet address itself.
Pass Uses a .gov domainThe website and email both use a .gov address. 6/6
Why it matters. Only real US government bodies can get a .gov address, and it is free for them. People can trust a .gov address in a way they can't trust a .us or .com one.
What we saw
www.aitkincountymn.gov, aitkincountymn.gov
Pass DNS answers are signed (DNSSEC)The DNS zones for the website and email are signed and check out. 6/6
Why it matters. DNSSEC signs the county's DNS records, so nobody can send visitors or email to a fake server by forging the answers.
What we saw
aitkincountymn.gov: signed
Fail Only chosen companies can issue certificates (CAA)There is no CAA record, so any certificate company may issue certificates for the domain. 0/3
Why it matters. A CAA record lists the certificate companies the county uses. Every other company must refuse to issue a certificate for the county's domain.
How to fix it. Add a CAA record such as 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" (or your certificate provider) to the domain.
Pass Name servers in more than one address blockThe domain has name servers in more than one address block. 2/2
Why it matters. If all of a domain's name servers sit on one network, one outage takes the website and email offline together.
What we saw
aitkincountymn.gov: corey.ns.cloudflare.com, ulla.ns.cloudflare.com
Fail The website works over IPv6The website has no IPv6 address. 0/3
Why it matters. Many phone networks and newer internet connections use IPv6. A site with an IPv6 address is reachable over them directly.
How to fix it. Ask your hosting provider or CDN to turn on IPv6 and publish an AAAA record for the site.
What we saw
www.aitkincountymn.gov has no AAAA record
Aitkin and its neighbors
| 1 | Aitkin | A90 | 100 | 89 | 70 | ||||||||||||||
| 21 | Itasca | D66 | 76 | 69 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 28 | St. Louis | D64 | 71 | 69 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 38 | Pine | F58 | 71 | 51 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 43 | Cass | F52 | 42 | 74 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 63 | Carlton | F48 | 36 | 69 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 63 | Crow Wing | F48 | 36 | 69 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| 63 | Kanabec | F48 | 24 | 74 | 55 | ||||||||||||||
| 63 | Mille Lacs | F48 | 36 | 69 | 40 | ||||||||||||||
| No counties match. | |||||||||||||||||||
Score history
First checked on Oct 13, 2026. The history chart fills in as daily scans add up.
This score only covers settings anyone can see from the internet. It can't see passwords, backups, staff training or anything inside the county's network, so a high score doesn't mean a county is safe, and a low one doesn't mean it has been hacked.
Work for Aitkin County and something looks wrong? Email hello@govleaderboard.com and we'll recheck it. Last checked Oct 13, 2026, 3:01 PM CT.
Looking for Aitkin County offices and records? Find them on GISFinder.