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Security report for acnuk.org

Aid to the Church in Need · Non-profit · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) UK is a well-established Catholic charity focused on supporting persecuted and oppressed Christians worldwide through spiritual and practical aid. The organization operates a professional and content-rich website that effectively communicates its mission, appeals, and ways to get involved. The site integrates modern web technologies including Drupal 11 CMS, Google Tag Manager, and Fundraise Up for donations, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, Cloudflare hosting, and reCAPTCHA protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and some security headers could be improved. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly presented with consent mechanisms, supporting GDPR compliance. The domain registration data aligns well with the charity's identity, showing a long-established presence since 1999. Overall, the website demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and user experience, suitable for its non-profit mission and donor engagement.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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

4 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

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching acnuk.org

This scan found 17 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.

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Recommended

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

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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
42
Security headers
65
Email security
87
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
75

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

ACN UK holds a significant position in the religious non-profit sector, leveraging a strong brand and international partnerships. Its business model centers on fundraising through multiple channels including online donations, mass offerings, and legacy giving. The organization targets donors, religious communities, and supporters of religious freedom advocacy. The website content and structure support effective engagement and transparency, with clear calls to action and comprehensive information about projects and appeals. The presence of a subsidiary (ACN Trading Ltd) indicates a structured operational model. Social media integration and regular news updates enhance outreach and community building.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and is hosted behind Cloudflare, providing DDoS protection and performance benefits. Use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 on forms mitigates spam and abuse risks. The domain status clientTransferProhibited prevents unauthorized domain transfers. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended enhancement for DNS security. Security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options are not explicitly detected in the HTML source, suggesting room for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available, which could be improved to enhance transparency and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and verify security headers such as X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Content-Security-Policy.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy page and provide incident response contact information.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Maintain regular security audits and update third-party libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Legal name
Aid to the Church in Need
Registration number
1097984 (England and Wales), SC040748 (Scotland)
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Aid to the Church in Need
Description
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is a Catholic charity bringing spiritual and practical help to Catholics and other Christians where they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need through prayer, information, and action.
Key services
Appeals and fundraising, Donations processing, Advocacy for religious freedom, Information dissemination via news, podcasts, reports, Support for persecuted Christians worldwide
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 11, Commerce 3, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA v3, Fundraise Up widget, jQuery
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 for forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS and protection
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google reCAPTCHA
Marketing tools
Fundraise Up
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed charity site with clear navigation and rich content.
  2. Strong focus on religious charitable work and fundraising.
  3. Multiple donation and fundraising mechanisms integrated.
  4. Good privacy and cookie compliance with explicit consent mechanisms.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and security best practices.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  7. Social media presence is well integrated.
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via form only.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 11 with Commerce 3, indicating a modern and scalable CMS platform suitable for e-commerce and content management. Integration with Google Tag Manager and Fundraise Up shows advanced marketing and fundraising capabilities. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in loading times. The use of external fonts and CDN resources is standard. No broken links or errors were detected. The technical stack supports a robust user experience and secure transaction processing.
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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