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Security report for bcfe.ie

Ballyfermot College of Further Education BCFE · Education · Ireland

Partial score · DNS & email only

38/100

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

Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE) is a well-established educational institution based in Dublin, Ireland, offering a wide range of further education courses primarily in creative arts, business, social care, and digital media. The college is government co-funded and serves a diverse student population seeking Level 5, 6, and 8 qualifications. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence with clear navigation, detailed course information, and active engagement through social media channels. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern SEO and analytics tools, ensuring good performance and mobile optimization. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and cookie consent mechanisms, though formal security policies and incident response details are not publicly disclosed. Overall, BCFE demonstrates a strong market position as a reputable further education provider with transparent business operations and compliance with GDPR.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
55/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: ms76471610.msv1.invalid

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory
  4. Network security

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

    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • 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

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

Keep watching bcfe.ie

This scan found 15 issues across 5 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
0
Email security
70
DNS health
45
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
55
Average
38

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 bcfe.ie, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
214
Employees
0
Customers
1
Third parties
213
Weak passwords
6%

1 subdomain 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 bcfe.ie.

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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

BCFE operates within the education sector as an essential entity providing further education and training. Its market positioning is strengthened by government funding and a broad portfolio of courses catering to creative and business disciplines. The institution leverages partnerships with City of Dublin ETB and uses third-party platforms for enrollment and learning management, indicating a collaborative ecosystem. The business model focuses on delivering accredited courses and community education, targeting students and adult learners. Growth indicators include active event promotion, alumni testimonials, and continuous course updates. The partnership ecosystem includes government bodies and educational service providers, enhancing credibility and operational efficiency.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent implemented via Complianz GDPR plugin. Use of reputable analytics and marketing tools is balanced with privacy compliance. However, the absence of a publicly available security policy and incident response contacts limits transparency. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Security headers were not explicitly identified, suggesting room for improvement. Overall, the site aligns well with GDPR requirements but could enhance its security culture by publishing formal policies and improving header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security frameworks and controls.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and configure security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by detailing data retention policies and DPO contact information.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Ballyfermot College of Further Education BCFE
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ballyfermot College of Further Education BCFE
Description
Level 5, 6 and 8 courses in Animation, Games, Visual Effects, Art, Design, Digital Media, Music, TV & Film Production, Business, Tourism, Social Care Studies
Key services
Further education courses, Adult and community education, Creative arts and media training, Business and social care studies
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, Google Analytics (MonsterInsights), LiteSpeed Cache, Complianz GDPR Cookie Consent
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security plugins (LiteSpeed Cache, Complianz)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (MonsterInsights)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
Facebook Pixel
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained educational institution site
  2. Comprehensive course offerings with clear navigation
  3. Strong presence of government and EU funding logos indicating legitimacy
  4. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented and accessible
  5. Use of modern SEO and analytics tools
  6. No signs of blocking or WAF interference
  7. No visible security policy or incident response information publicly available
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with integration of SEO plugins (Yoast SEO, All in One SEO) and analytics via Google Analytics (MonsterInsights). It uses jQuery and other JavaScript libraries for UI components such as sliders and menus. Performance is moderate with lazy loading implemented for images. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are good, supporting a broad user base. Hosting provider details are not explicit, but the presence of LiteSpeed Cache suggests a performance-focused hosting environment. Technical debt appears low, though security header implementation could be improved. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs effectively with opportunities for modernization in security practices.
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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