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Security report for academia.co.uk

Academia Ltd · Technology · United Kingdom

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

47/100

Risk levelHigh

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Academia Ltd is a well-established UK-based IT solutions provider specializing in education, public sector, and business markets. Founded in 2002, the company offers a broad portfolio of services including hardware, software, cyber security, cloud, managed services, and creative solutions. Their market position is reinforced by multiple industry accreditations and awards, including the Stockies Reseller Website of the Year 2025. The company targets educational institutions, public sector organizations, businesses, charities, and creative industries, delivering tailored IT solutions to enhance productivity and user experience. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern plugins such as Yoast SEO and integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices, though accessibility features could be improved. Hosting is provided by a reputable UK registrar, and the domain age aligns with the company's stated history, supporting credibility. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled and secure form embedding, but lacks explicit security headers and published security policies. Privacy compliance is partial, with no visible privacy or cookie policies on the homepage, which should be addressed to meet GDPR standards fully. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-branded, with room for improvement in privacy and security transparency. Strategically, Academia Ltd should focus on enhancing privacy disclosures, implementing cookie consent mechanisms, and publishing security policies to strengthen compliance and user trust. Technical improvements in accessibility and security headers will further improve the site's robustness and user experience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching academia.co.uk

This scan found 27 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
37
Security headers
30
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
53
Average
47

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Academia Ltd operates in a competitive IT solutions market with a focus on education, public sector, and business clients. Their competitive advantage lies in a comprehensive service portfolio, strong industry partnerships (Apple, Microsoft, Jamf, Sophos), and recognized accreditations. The business model centers on providing bespoke IT solutions and managed services, supported by a digital eCommerce platform. Revenue streams likely include hardware/software sales, managed service contracts, and professional services. The company demonstrates growth through acquisitions (Smartdesc) and award-winning digital presence. Their partnership ecosystem is robust, enhancing market reach and innovation capabilities. Strategic observations suggest a mature organization with a focus on sustainable and scalable IT solutions aligned with customer needs.

Security posture

Academia Ltd exhibits a moderate to strong security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and sensitive data exposure is minimized by using embedded iframes for forms. However, the absence of key security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) and lack of publicly available security or incident response policies indicate areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected in the HTML content. GDPR compliance is partial due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident. The security culture is implied through accreditations like Cyber Essentials but would benefit from more transparent communication of security practices. Overall, the security posture is adequate but should be enhanced to meet best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy accessible from all pages.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and ePrivacy Directive.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Develop and publish an incident response policy and vulnerability disclosure program.
  5. Improve website accessibility to meet WCAG standards and enhance user inclusivity.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Academia Ltd
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Academia Ltd
Description
Leading IT solutions provider specialising in Education, Public Sector and B2B - Academia the Technology Group.
Key services
Hardware & Infrastructure, Apple Solutions, Software, Cyber Security, Cloud Services, Mobile Solutions, Creative Solutions, Subscription Solutions, Device Management, Managed Services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, jQuery, Keen Slider, Google Tag Manager, Dotdigital (email marketing)
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms embedded via iframe

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Dotdigital
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
good
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
good
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional IT solutions provider focused on education, public sector, and business.
  2. Strong branding and consistent messaging throughout site.
  3. Multiple accreditations and partner logos reinforce trust.
  4. Embedded forms use third-party iframe for security and compliance.
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on homepage HTML content.
  6. Good SEO and social media integration.
  7. No signs of WAF or content blocking.
  8. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and long-term operation.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Yoast SEO, and Keen Slider for UI components. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics, and Dotdigital handles email marketing. The site is hosted by a UK-based registrar with a long-standing domain registration. Performance is moderate with some lazy loading of images, though some images show 'error' status in lazy loading attributes, which may affect user experience. The site is mobile optimized and SEO friendly with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical risks include missing security headers and partial accessibility compliance. The embedded iframe for contact forms enhances security by isolating form handling. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and scalable digital presence.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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