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Security report for artofbuilding.org

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) · Other · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Art Of Building website is an international photography competition platform focused on showcasing the best digital photography of the built environment. It is operated under the auspices of The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), a reputable organization in the construction and building sector. The website targets photographers, architecture enthusiasts, and professionals interested in the built environment, positioning itself as a niche but internationally recognized competition platform. The business model revolves around hosting and promoting the competition and showcasing winning entries, supported by CIOB's brand and network. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using a Divi child theme, enhanced with SEO tools like Rank Math and social sharing via Monarch. It employs Google Tag Manager for analytics and Cloudflare for DNS services, indicating a modern and mature digital infrastructure. The site is moderately performant with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO optimization is good, supported by structured data and meta tags. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and has domain transfer protections enabled. However, it lacks DNSSEC and security headers, which are recommended for enhanced security. No explicit privacy, cookie, or security policies are found, which is a compliance gap. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which could be improved to enhance trust and security posture. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy with a solid business foundation and technical implementation. The main risks relate to privacy compliance and security best practices, which if addressed, would improve the site's security posture and user trust. Strategic recommendations include adding comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, enabling DNSSEC, implementing security headers, and publishing vulnerability disclosure information.

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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. 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"

    • 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching artofbuilding.org

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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
40
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
Average
59

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

The Art Of Building is positioned as a specialized international photography competition focusing on the built environment, leveraging the credibility of The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). Its competitive advantage lies in its niche focus and association with a respected professional body. The business model is centered on competition hosting and digital showcasing, likely funded through CIOB membership or sponsorships. Target customers include photographers, architects, and construction professionals globally. The website's longevity since 2010 indicates stable operations. Partnerships are evident through social media and CIOB branding. Growth potential exists in expanding digital engagement and sponsorships. The absence of direct contact details or commercial transactions suggests a primarily informational and promotional platform.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces its defense-in-depth. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The lack of explicit privacy and cookie policies, as well as incident response contacts, indicates compliance and readiness gaps. The site does not publish a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy, limiting responsible vulnerability reporting. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an informational site but should be enhanced to meet best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve DNS security.
  2. Implement standard security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements and consent mechanisms.
  4. Add a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure page to facilitate responsible security reporting.
  5. Include incident response contact information such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses to improve transparency and readiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)
Description
The Art of Building photography competition is an international showcase for the very best digital photography of the built environment.
Key services
photography competition, showcase platform for digital photography
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Cloudflare DNS, jQuery, Rank Math SEO, Divi Child Theme, Instagram Feed plugin, Monarch Social Sharing
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Rank Math SEO, Monarch Social Sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional photography competition platform run by a reputable organization (CIOB).
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the homepage or metadata.
  3. Uses modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided content.
  5. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information.
  6. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  7. WHOIS data shows a long-established domain with no privacy protection, indicating transparency.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with a Divi child theme, leveraging modern web fonts from Google Fonts and social media integration via Monarch and Instagram Feed plugins. Analytics are managed through Google Tag Manager. DNS is managed by Cloudflare, providing performance and security benefits, though DNSSEC is not enabled. The site uses structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO and social media optimization. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility features are basic. The site lacks advanced security headers and explicit privacy compliance mechanisms. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but can benefit from security and compliance enhancements.
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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