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Security report for bothams.co.uk

Bothams Estate Agents · Real Estate · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Network security and 1 other check.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Bothams Estate Agents is a well-established independent real estate firm based in Chesterfield, UK, with a history dating back to 1871. The company offers a comprehensive range of property services including residential and commercial sales, lettings, valuations, and property management. The website reflects a professional and trustworthy business with strong customer testimonials and recognized industry certifications. Technically, the site is built on Joomla CMS with modern JavaScript libraries and is mobile-optimized, providing a good user experience. Security measures include HTTPS and Google reCAPTCHA on forms, although some security headers are missing. The WHOIS data for the domain is unavailable due to a domain registration anomaly, which slightly impacts trust but does not detract from the business credibility. Overall, the website is secure, compliant with privacy regulations, and professionally maintained.

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

5 findings 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

  2. 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

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching bothams.co.uk

This scan found 23 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
57
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
83
Average
53

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

Bothams operates in the real estate sector targeting property buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants primarily in Chesterfield and surrounding regions. The business model focuses on agency services with revenue from sales commissions, lettings fees, and property management. The merger with Redbrik Estate Agents indicates strategic partnership expansion. The company leverages certifications and client reviews to build trust and market position. The website integrates with major property portals and uses modern web technologies to support its operations. Growth indicators include active property listings and customer engagement through contact forms and valuation requests.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of Google reCAPTCHA to prevent spam, and client-side form validation. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options is a gap that could expose the site to certain attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of published incident response or security policies suggests room for improvement in transparency and preparedness. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers and formal security documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish an incident response policy and security contact information to improve transparency and readiness for security events.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with standards and user experience for all visitors.
  5. Clarify domain registration status or consider domain consolidation to resolve WHOIS inconsistencies and strengthen trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bothams Estate Agents
Description
Bothams is an independent estate, letting & management agents, chartered surveyors and valuers established in 1871, serving Chesterfield and surrounding areas.
Key services
Valuations, Residential Sales, Residential Lettings, Commercial Sales, Commercial Lettings, Property Management, Investment Services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, Google reCAPTCHA v2, Joomla CMS, Flexslider, Multiple Select jQuery plugin, Lozad.js (lazy loading), Google Fonts (Raleway)
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Joomla
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA v2 on contact form
  • Form validation with jQuery Validate
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and interactive features
  2. Uses modern web technologies and responsive design
  3. Strong presence of trust indicators including certifications and customer testimonials
  4. WHOIS data is unavailable or invalid for the domain, which is unusual
  5. No visible security headers detected in HTML source
  6. Privacy and cookie policies are present and linked
  7. Contact form uses Google reCAPTCHA v2 for spam protection
  8. No evidence of malware or phishing
  9. No terms of service or incident response policies found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Joomla CMS with Bootstrap framework and uses jQuery extensively along with plugins like Flexslider and Multiple Select. It employs lazy loading for images via Lozad.js and integrates Google Fonts for typography. The site uses Google reCAPTCHA v2 for form spam protection and asynchronous loading of scripts to optimize performance. The design is responsive and mobile-friendly, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data in JSON-LD format describing the business. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in caching and security headers. No hosting provider details were identified from the content.
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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