We evaluated the web security posture of 19 Ecuadorian savings and credit cooperatives (credit unions) using Mozilla HTTP Observatory, the same free, public tool that anyone can use to audit a website in minutes. The result leaves no room for interpretation: none reach Tier A, the sector average is 39.5 out of 100, and more than half currently operate with active, exploitable attack vectors.
This is no longer just a technical issue. With the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection (LOPDP) fully in force and the Superintendencia de Protección de Datos Personales (SPDP) actively conducting audits, every red flag in this study represents a potentially documentable regulatory violation.
Key Findings
- 0 out of 19 cooperatives achieve Tier A in web security.
- 100% fail on Content Security Policy (CSP), the most fundamental control against malicious code injection in member browsers.
- 52.7% of the sector (Tiers D and F) operates with attack vectors exploitable today without sophisticated tools.
- A 75-point gap exists between the sector's top posture (JEP and OSCUS, 75/100) and the lowest (CPMV and Atuntaqui, 0/100).
- Size offers no protection: one of the largest credit unions in the country scored 10/100.
Regulatory Size Does Not Explain the Results
We cross-referenced findings by SEPS segment (S1 to S4) and by province, and the pattern remains consistent: neither regulatory tier nor geographic location accounts for security posture.
- Segment 1—theoretically backed by stronger regulation and higher technical capacity—averages just 48 points.
- Quito (Pichincha) is the only province hosting cooperatives from three separate segments (S1, S2, S4), yet it shows the widest score spread in the country: ranging from 5 to 65 points within the same metropolitan area.
- Segment 3 is the most geographically dispersed (present across 5 distinct provinces, with one cooperative per province) and posts the sector's lowest average—signaling a systemic challenge rather than an isolated regional defect.
The New Reality: This is Also a Risk Under the LOPDP
Credit unions process financial records, personal identification data, and, in several cases, biometric information from their members—precisely the high-sensitivity data subject to stringent protections under the LOPDP.
Two statutory provisions directly connect to our findings:
Security of Personal Data
Mandates the implementation of adequate and necessary technical, organizational, and security measures in line with current state-of-the-art standards. Content Security Policy (CSP) is free and has been an established global security standard for years; its complete omission across the sector is virtually indefensible during a regulatory audit or post-incident review.
Data Protection by Design and by Default
Requires security safeguards and appropriate data handling mechanisms to be built directly into systems from their initial design phase, rather than applied as reactive patches following a security compromise.
Legal Precedent: Sanctions Against LigaPro
This is no longer merely theoretical. In January 2026, the SPDP sanctioned Ecuador's Professional Football League (LIGAPRO) specifically for failing to implement data protection by design in its biometric data platform—the exact legal standard applicable to the web security gaps identified in this report. Penalties for serious violations range from 0.7% to 1% of an entity's annual revenue, and severe security incidents can trigger simultaneous sanction proceedings from both the SEPS and the SPDP.
The Good News
The initial phase of technical remediation—implementing CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options—carries zero software cost and can be completed in under 30 days by internal IT teams. It represents the fastest path to mitigating attack surfaces while establishing clear technical compliance evidence for SEPS or SPDP oversight.
Next Steps
- Request a free diagnostic assessment for your credit union using HTTP Observatory—takes 5 minutes, requires no credentials, and involves zero cost.
- Coordinate with your legal counsel to confirm whether a designated Data Protection Officer (DPO) is in place and an incident notification protocol is formally defined.
- Prioritize Phase 1 technical remediation before allocating budgets to complex enterprise security tooling.
This sector benchmark was conducted by Urbadigital, utilizing diagnostic infrastructure from WebPerformance Report (webperformancereport.com)[cite: 1] to aggregate and evaluate web security telemetry across the 19 assessed credit unions.
We invite you to participate in this initiative: register here to subscribe to the weekly brief and access ongoing web performance analytics and vulnerability reports for Ecuador's cooperative financial ecosystem[cite: 1].
