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Security report for atomeducation.co.uk

ATOM Education Ltd. · Education · United Kingdom

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

Security score

44/100

Risk levelHigh

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

ATOM Education Ltd. is a specialist recruitment agency established in 2006, focusing on staffing solutions for institutional and educational workplaces, including the prison sector, young offender institutions, and secure training centers. The company offers both permanent and temporary recruitment services, targeting clients and candidates within these niche sectors. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence with clear navigation and relevant content tailored to its audience. The domain age and WHOIS data corroborate the company's longstanding market presence in the UK education sector. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using common plugins such as Contact Form 7 and Email Subscribers, with UIkit as the front-end framework. The site is hosted by GoDaddy and employs HTTPS, ensuring secure communication. Performance and mobile optimization are moderate to good, though accessibility and SEO could be improved. The absence of advanced security headers and privacy policies indicates room for enhancement in security and compliance. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and standard WordPress security practices but lacks explicit security headers and visible privacy or cookie policies, which are critical for GDPR compliance. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The lack of incident response or security contact information suggests limited formal security posture documentation. Overall, the website is functional, professional, and trustworthy for its business domain but would benefit from improved privacy compliance, enhanced security headers, and clearer contact information to strengthen user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

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

Keep watching atomeducation.co.uk

This scan found 26 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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  • 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
47
Security headers
20
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
50
Average
44

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 · found on this site
  • 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

ATOM Education operates as a niche recruitment agency specializing in institutional and educational staffing within the UK, particularly focusing on the prison sector and related secure environments. Its competitive advantage lies in its specialized knowledge and over 18 years of experience, positioning it as a trusted partner for clients requiring staffing solutions in challenging sectors. The business model revolves around candidate placement and client staffing services, generating revenue through recruitment fees. The website's partnership with recsite.com indicates integration with recruitment technology platforms. The absence of extensive marketing or analytics tools suggests a focused, possibly smaller scale operation. Growth indicators include a stable domain age and consistent branding. Strategic observations highlight the need for enhanced digital compliance and security to maintain competitive advantage and trust.

Security posture

The current security posture of the website is moderate. HTTPS is properly implemented, ensuring encrypted data transmission. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and HSTS reduces protection against common web attacks like clickjacking and content injection. The use of standard WordPress plugins with reCAPTCHA support is positive but requires regular updates to mitigate vulnerabilities. No incident response or security policy pages are present, indicating limited formal security governance. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies, which could expose the business to regulatory risks under GDPR. Overall, the security culture appears basic, with room for improvement in proactive security measures and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Add and configure security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and HSTS.
  3. Establish and publish an incident response policy and security contact information.
  4. Regularly update WordPress core and plugins to address security vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance website accessibility and SEO to improve user experience and search visibility.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ATOM Education Ltd.
Description
Specialist recruitment agency focusing on staffing for the prison sector, young offender institutions, secure training centres, and pupil referral units. Founded in 2006 by a teacher, providing recruitment solutions for permanent and temporary roles.
Key services
Recruitment for prison sector, Staffing for young offender institutions, Secure training and pupil referral units staffing, Permanent and temporary recruitment solutions
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, WordPress, KingComposer, UIkit, Contact Form 7, Email Subscribers plugin
Frameworks
UIkit
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Use of Contact Form 7 with reCAPTCHA support

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Marketing tools
Email Subscribers plugin
Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a niche recruitment agency specializing in education and institutional sectors.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy pages found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. Terms of service pages are present and linked in navigation.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage or main navigation.
  5. Website uses WordPress with common plugins and UIkit framework.
  6. No security headers detected in provided HTML content.
  7. No analytics or tracking scripts detected beyond basic plugins.
  8. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  9. Domain WHOIS data supports legitimacy and business history.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform, leveraging plugins such as Contact Form 7 for forms and Email Subscribers for marketing. The front-end uses the UIkit framework and KingComposer page builder, indicating a modern but standard technology stack. Hosting is provided by GoDaddy, a reputable registrar and hosting provider. Performance is moderate with no evident broken elements, and mobile optimization is good. However, the site lacks advanced SEO meta tags and accessibility features. The absence of analytics tools suggests limited data-driven marketing. Technical debt appears low but could be improved by adopting modern security headers and enhancing compliance documentation.
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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