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Security report for angus.gov.uk

Angus Council · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Angus Council operates as the official local government authority for the Angus region in Scotland, providing a broad spectrum of public services including housing, council tax, benefits, planning, and community support. The website serves residents and businesses with accessible information and service portals, reflecting a mature public sector digital presence. The council maintains a strong market position as a regional government entity with a focus on community engagement and service delivery. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies and analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Siteimprove Analytics. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and incorporates a chatbot for enhanced user interaction. Performance is moderate with good SEO and accessibility practices. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR. However, explicit security headers are not evident, and there is no public security policy or incident response information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected, indicating a solid security posture for a government website. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and compliant with privacy regulations. The absence of WHOIS data limits domain age and registrant verification, but the .gov.uk domain and content strongly support legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure program to further strengthen security and transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 100 · Low
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 Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

  4. 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 angus.gov.uk

This scan found 22 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

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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
72
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
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

Angus Council is positioned as a key local government authority serving the Angus region, with a comprehensive portfolio of public services targeting residents and local businesses. The council's business model is public sector service delivery funded by government allocations and local taxes. The website supports multiple service channels including payments, housing applications, and community engagement platforms. The presence of certifications related to social responsibility and inclusivity enhances its public trust. The council's digital ecosystem includes partnerships with Engage Angus for consultations and uses multiple analytics and marketing tools to optimize service delivery and citizen engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and cookie consent aligned with GDPR. The lack of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy and HSTS is a gap that could be addressed to mitigate risks like clickjacking and XSS. No evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries was found. The absence of a published security policy or incident response plan reduces transparency and preparedness visibility. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file is present, limiting external security collaboration. Overall, the site is secure for its purpose but could improve transparency and defense-in-depth measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible to users and stakeholders.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program and publish a security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency around data retention policies and analytics data usage to strengthen privacy compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Angus Council
Description
Angus Council is a local government authority providing a wide range of public services including housing, council tax, benefits, roads, planning, schools, and community services to residents of Angus, Scotland.
Key services
Benefits and money advice, Bins, litter and recycling, Council, committees and elections, Council Tax, Housing, Jobs, employment and training, Planning and building, Roads, parking and travel, Schools and young people, Births, deaths and ceremonies
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics, Humley Chatbot
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Siteimprove Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Siteimprove Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official local government website for Angus Council in Scotland
  2. Comprehensive service offerings and public information
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with user consent
  4. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and analytics tools
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. Social media presence on major platforms
  7. Certifications related to social responsibility and inclusivity displayed
  8. No WHOIS data available from raw output, but domain is .gov.uk indicating official status
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS platform, ensuring a robust content management framework. It integrates Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity for comprehensive user behavior tracking and site performance monitoring. The site uses Google Fonts and external scripts loaded asynchronously to optimize performance. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility features are well implemented, supporting a broad user base. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in caching and script optimization. The absence of explicit hosting provider information limits full infrastructure assessment.
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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