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Security report for bournemouth.ac.uk

Bournemouth University · Education · United Kingdom

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

Bournemouth University is a well-established UK higher education institution offering a broad range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and research programs. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence, targeting prospective and current students, academic partners, and the local community. The university emphasizes employability, research impact, and community engagement, supported by clear navigation and rich content. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 7 with modern integrations such as Google Tag Manager and cookie consent tools. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, though the use of Drupal 7 suggests some technical debt. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, but the absence of visible security headers and incident response contacts indicates room for improvement. The lack of WHOIS data due to privacy protection is typical for large institutions and does not detract from the site's legitimacy. The site maintains good privacy compliance with GDPR-aligned policies and transparent cookie management. Overall, the website scores highly for content quality, business credibility, and privacy compliance, with moderate technical and security scores. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, updating the CMS platform, and publishing explicit incident response contacts to further strengthen trust and security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
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

3 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

  3. 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

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 14 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates

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

Keep watching bournemouth.ac.uk

This scan found 20 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.

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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
75
Security headers
60
Email security
80
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
76

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 bournemouth.ac.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
10,295
Employees
1,035
Customers
6,832
Third parties
2,428
Weak passwords
6%

Latest record dated 2026-06-18 · 113 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 bournemouth.ac.uk.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –sts.bournemouth.ac.uk2026-06-18
  • –intranetsp.bournemouth.ac.uk2026-06-17
  • –sts.bournemouth.ac.uk2026-06-17
  • –sts.bournemouth.ac.uk2026-06-17
  • –sts.bournemouth.ac.uk2026-06-16

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

Bournemouth University operates in the education sector with a large institutional size and a strong UK regional presence. Its business model focuses on delivering degree programs, research, and community partnerships. The university leverages awards and certifications as trust signals and maintains a comprehensive online presence with multiple social media channels. The website's content and structure support recruitment and engagement of students and partners, indicating a mature digital marketing strategy. The absence of direct revenue streams or payment processing domains suggests a focus on educational services rather than e-commerce. The university's partnerships and collaborations are evident but not explicitly linked to external domains beyond internal subdomains.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options is a notable gap. No incident response or abuse contact information is published, which could hinder timely vulnerability reporting. The site shows no signs of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries in the HTML source. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and Mixpanel is managed with consent, aligning with privacy regulations. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers and publishing incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Upgrade the CMS from Drupal 7 to a supported version to reduce technical debt and security risks.
  3. Publish clear incident response and abuse contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency around data retention policies and user privacy to strengthen GDPR compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bournemouth University
Description
Bournemouth University is a UK-based higher education institution offering undergraduate, postgraduate, and research courses. It emphasizes employability, research impact, and community engagement.
Key services
Undergraduate courses, Postgraduate courses, Postgraduate research, Continuing professional development, Apprenticeships, Research projects and partnerships
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 7, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, YouTube embed, Civic Computing CookieControl, Unistats widget
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Mixpanel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Mixpanel
Marketing tools
Civic Computing CookieControl
Transparency
good

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 and navigation
  2. No WAF or blocking detected
  3. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to privacy protection or registry restrictions
  4. Strong privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  5. Multiple social media and external trusted links
  6. Drupal 7 CMS is somewhat outdated but site appears maintained
  7. No visible security headers detected in HTML source
  8. No incident response or security contact email found
  9. Clear contact information with phone and postal address provided
  10. No adult or questionable content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 7, a widely used but aging CMS platform, integrated with jQuery and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. The site uses asynchronous script loading and responsive design techniques for performance and mobile optimization. Cookie consent is managed via Civic Computing's CookieControl. The site loads multiple CSS and JS assets efficiently but could benefit from modernization to newer frameworks and CMS versions. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found. Performance is moderate with good mobile and accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable but shows signs of aging technology that should be updated to maintain security and performance.
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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