Skip to main content

Security report for bbc.co.uk

BBC · Media · United Kingdom

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

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

The BBC website serves as the primary online presence for the British Broadcasting Corporation, a leading public service broadcaster in the United Kingdom. It offers a wide range of content including news, sports, weather, TV, and radio highlights, targeting a broad general audience. The site reflects the BBC's market position as a trusted and authoritative media organization with extensive reach and influence. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies such as React and CSS-in-JS (Emotion), ensuring a responsive, accessible, and SEO-optimized user experience. The site is well-structured with comprehensive metadata, Open Graph tags, and JSON-LD structured data to enhance discoverability and social media integration. Performance and mobile optimization are excellent, supporting a fast and smooth user experience across devices. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with strong SSL configurations and includes essential security headers. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is robust, with clear privacy and cookie policies and mechanisms for user consent, aligning with GDPR requirements. The absence of WHOIS data is due to domain registration rules for .co.uk domains but does not detract from the site's legitimacy given the strong brand presence and consistent content. Overall, the BBC website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, security, and compliance, making it a trustworthy and authoritative source of information. Strategic recommendations include maintaining vigilant security practices, continuous monitoring of third-party scripts, and ongoing privacy compliance updates to sustain trust and resilience.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of bbc.co.uk. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 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

Keep watching bbc.co.uk

This scan found 13 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
82
Security headers
95
Email security
72
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
85

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention bbc.co.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
19,323
Employees
102
Customers
18,324
Third parties
897
Weak passwords
18%

Latest record dated 2026-06-17 · 195 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for bbc.co.uk.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –bbclogin.id.tools.bbc.co.uk2026-06-17
  • –adfs1.sso.bbc.co.uk2026-06-13
  • –bbclogin.id.tools.bbc.co.uk2026-06-12
  • –bbclogin.id.tools.bbc.co.uk2026-05-28
  • –careershub.bbc.co.uk2026-05-27

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The BBC operates as a public service broadcaster funded primarily through license fees, positioning itself as a dominant player in the UK media sector. Its business model focuses on delivering high-quality, diverse content to a broad audience, including news, sports, and entertainment. The website supports this model by providing accessible and comprehensive digital content. The BBC's competitive advantage lies in its trusted brand, extensive content library, and government backing. The organization maintains a strong partnership ecosystem and leverages multiple platforms to reach audiences. Growth indicators include digital expansion and multimedia integration. The website reflects strategic priorities of accessibility, user engagement, and content diversity.

Security posture

The BBC website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no detected vulnerabilities in the analyzed content. The presence of security best practices such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security headers indicates proactive risk mitigation. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms demonstrate compliance with data protection regulations. However, no explicit incident response or security policy pages were found, suggesting an opportunity to enhance transparency in security governance. Overall, the site is secure for users, with low risk of common web threats. Continued vigilance and periodic security audits are recommended to maintain this posture.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publicly disclose a dedicated security policy and incident response page to enhance transparency and user trust.
  2. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate supply chain risks.
  3. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and best practices.
  4. Enhance contact information availability, including direct security contact channels for vulnerability reporting.
  5. Invest in ongoing accessibility and performance improvements to sustain user experience excellence.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
BBC
Description
The BBC is a public service broadcaster providing news, sport, weather, TV & radio highlights, and other content across the UK and internationally.
Key services
News, Sport, Weather, TV and Radio content, Online media
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Emotion CSS-in-JS, JSON-LD structured data, HTTPS
Frameworks
React
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
BBC internal analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content
  2. No WAF or blocking detected
  3. Strong branding and professional design
  4. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies present
  5. No suspicious or malicious indicators found
Technical notes

Notes

The BBC website is built on a modern technology stack featuring React and Emotion for styling, enabling a responsive and dynamic user interface. The use of JSON-LD structured data and comprehensive meta tags supports SEO and social media integration. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization and accessibility features, adhering to best practices. Performance is optimized with efficient asset loading and caching strategies. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary content management solution. Hosting details are not explicitly available but the site benefits from robust infrastructure supporting high traffic volumes. Technical risks are minimal, with opportunities for further modernization in security transparency and backend infrastructure 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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 85/100 +19Low22 findingsView report
  2. 66/100Medium22 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with bbc.co.uk. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review bbc.co.uk.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.