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Security report for bbc.com

BBC News · Media · United Kingdom

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

84/100

Risk levelLow

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

BBC.com is the official website of the British Broadcasting Corporation, a globally recognized public service broadcaster. The site offers comprehensive news coverage, including world news, US news, sports, business, innovation, culture, travel, and multimedia content such as video and audio. It targets a broad audience seeking trusted and timely information. The BBC maintains a strong market position as a leading media organization with a well-established brand and extensive content offerings. Technically, the site leverages modern web technologies including React and Next.js frameworks, alongside various analytics and advertising tools, ensuring a fast, responsive, and accessible user experience. Security measures are robust, with HTTPS enforcement, security headers, and cookie consent mechanisms in place, reflecting a mature security posture. Privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, with clear user consent for cookies and tracking. Overall, the website demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and technical sophistication, supporting the BBC's mission as a trusted news source.

Scanned

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

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

2 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

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

Keep watching bbc.com

This scan found 16 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
92
Security headers
55
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
Average
84

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.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
366,291
Employees
20
Customers
365,858
Third parties
413
Weak passwords
5%

Latest record dated 2026-03-20 · 180 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.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –account.bbc.com2026-03-20
  • –account.bbc.com2026-03-01
  • –account.bbc.com2025-11-13
  • –account.bbc.com2025-09-19
  • –account.bbc.com2025-09-02

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

BBC operates as a public service broadcaster funded primarily through the UK television license fee, offering free access to news and entertainment content globally. Its business model focuses on content creation and distribution across multiple platforms, including web, TV, and radio. The BBC's competitive advantage lies in its reputation for impartial and high-quality journalism, extensive global reach, and diversified content portfolio. Partnerships with services like BritBox and its own merchandise store expand its ecosystem. The organization targets a wide demographic, including general news consumers, sports fans, culture enthusiasts, and podcast listeners. Growth indicators include continuous digital innovation and expansion of multimedia offerings. The BBC's operations are supported by a large enterprise-scale infrastructure and a strong brand presence worldwide.

Security posture

BBC.com exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers such as CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The site uses secure cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR requirements. Third-party scripts are managed carefully, with no detected vulnerable libraries. However, explicit incident response contact information and a public security policy page are not evident, representing an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or phishing indicators were detected. Overall, the BBC maintains strong security practices appropriate for a high-profile media organization.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and incident response procedures.
  2. Provide clear contact channels for security incidents, such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance transparency around data retention policies related to analytics and tracking.
  5. Continue investment in accessibility improvements to maintain compliance with evolving standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
BBC News
Description
Visit BBC for trusted reporting on the latest world and US news, sports, business, climate, innovation, culture and much more.
Key services
News reporting, Sports coverage, Business news, Innovation and technology news, Culture and arts content, Travel information, Audio and video content
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (Next.js), RequireJS, Optimizely, Piano (subscription/paywall), Google Publisher Tags (GPT), Cxense (analytics and personalization), Chartbeat, Dotmetrics, Privacy Management scripts
Frameworks
Next.js, React
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CSP headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure cookie consent mechanism
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Cxense, Chartbeat, Dotmetrics, Comscore, Nielsen, Permutive
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, The Ozone Project, Google AdSense
Tracking pixels
Cxense, Permutive, Adsafe Protected, Comscore, Nielsen, DoubleVerify, Chartbeat, Dotmetrics
Marketing tools
Optimizely, Piano
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained news media site with extensive content.
  2. Strong adherence to privacy and cookie policies with visible consent mechanisms.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks for performance and user experience.
  4. Comprehensive navigation structure with multiple content categories.
  5. Robust security posture with HTTPS and security headers.
  6. Extensive use of third-party analytics and advertising networks with consent.
  7. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern React-based framework (Next.js), enabling server-side rendering and fast page loads. It uses RequireJS for module loading and integrates multiple third-party services for analytics (Cxense, Chartbeat, Dotmetrics), advertising (Google DoubleClick, The Ozone Project), and personalization (Piano). The site is hosted on BBC's own CDN infrastructure, ensuring high availability and performance. SEO is well-implemented with meta tags, Open Graph, Twitter cards, and JSON-LD structured data. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are strong, supporting a wide range of devices and users. The technical stack is robust and scalable, suitable for an enterprise-level media platform.
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. 83/100 +1Low23 findingsView report
  2. 82/100Low24 findingsView report
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