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Security report for bangor.ac.uk

Bangor University · Education · United Kingdom

Low risk. 1 critical or high finding in SSL/TLS.

Security score

81/100

Risk levelLow

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

Bangor University is a well-established higher education institution in the United Kingdom, offering undergraduate and postgraduate education alongside world-leading research. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence, targeting prospective and current students as well as the academic community. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging Drupal 10 CMS and integrating multiple analytics and marketing tools such as Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, and TikTok Pixel. The site is mobile optimized and demonstrates good SEO and accessibility practices, although accessibility could be further improved. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers, security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information suggests room for improvement in security transparency and maturity. The lack of WHOIS data limits the ability to fully verify domain legitimacy, but the website content and technical indicators support a generally trustworthy profile. Overall, Bangor University's website is functional, professional, and secure at a basic level, with extensive user tracking and marketing integrations. Strategic enhancements in privacy policy visibility, security disclosures, and WHOIS transparency would strengthen trust and compliance posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

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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
67
Security headers
75
Email security
83
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
81

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

Bangor University operates in the education sector, focusing on delivering quality teaching and research. Its market position is that of a recognized university with a strong research reputation. The business model centers on tuition, research funding, and student services. The website targets students and academics, providing course information and institutional details. The presence of multiple analytics and marketing tools indicates active engagement in digital marketing and user behavior analysis. No direct revenue streams or partnerships are explicitly identified in the content. The absence of detailed business registration or VAT information is typical for educational institutions but limits business transparency. The university maintains consistent branding and content quality, supporting its credibility in the education market.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent implemented, aligning with GDPR requirements. However, no advanced security headers (e.g., Content-Security-Policy) were detected, and no public security or incident response policies are available. The extensive use of third-party tracking scripts increases the attack surface and privacy risks. The lack of a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page reduces transparency and may hinder coordinated vulnerability reporting. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified in the analyzed content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could benefit from enhanced security controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy accessible from the homepage.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve security posture.
  3. Create and publish a security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Review and audit third-party scripts regularly to minimize privacy and security risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bangor University
Description
Bangor University is steeped in history and offers excellent teaching. Renowned for world-leading research and expert lecturers.
Key services
Undergraduate and postgraduate education, Research programs, Student support services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Font Awesome 6 Pro, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, TikTok Pixel, Quantcast, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Bing Ads, Cookiebot
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Quantcast
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Bing Ads, Google Ads
Tracking pixels
TikTok Pixel, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Microsoft Clarity, Quantcast
Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and fully functional.
  2. No WHOIS data available, indicating possible privacy protection or data retrieval failure.
  3. Strong use of third-party analytics and marketing tools.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided content.
  6. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in the analyzed content.
  7. Website uses modern CMS (Drupal 10) and up-to-date Font Awesome icons.
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  9. No explicit security or incident response policies found.
  10. Content is educational and safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, a modern and widely used content management system, ensuring a solid technical foundation. It uses Font Awesome 6 Pro for icons and integrates multiple analytics and marketing platforms including Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, TikTok Pixel, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and Quantcast. The site is mobile optimized and includes cookie consent mechanisms via Cookiebot. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to improve page load times. Accessibility is basic but could be improved with more ARIA attributes and semantic HTML. SEO is good with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical implementation is robust but could benefit from enhanced accessibility and security header configurations.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 65/100Medium22 findingsView report
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