Skip to main content

Security report for bowditch.com

Bowditch & Dewey · Real Estate · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Bowditch & Dewey is a professional law firm operating primarily in Massachusetts with offices in Boston, Framingham, Plymouth, and Worcester. The firm offers a broad range of legal and financial strategy services tailored to organizations and individuals, focusing on areas such as litigation, estate planning, business succession, and real estate law. Their website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content, client resources, and multiple communication channels, positioning them as a reputable regional legal service provider. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Hotjar for analytics and user experience insights. The site is well-optimized for SEO, accessibility, and mobile responsiveness, indicating a good level of digital maturity. Cookie consent and privacy mechanisms are implemented in compliance with GDPR, enhancing user trust and regulatory adherence. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses reputable third-party services. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of WHOIS data due to privacy protection slightly reduces transparency but is common for professional services. Overall, the security posture is solid with room for improvement in header implementation and form security. The overall risk assessment is low, with the firm demonstrating strong professionalism and compliance. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, continuous monitoring of third-party scripts, and ensuring robust form protections. These steps will further strengthen trust and security culture, supporting long-term business resilience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

  2. 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 bowditch.com

This scan found 24 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
27
Security headers
15
Email security
80
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
Average
66

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

Bowditch & Dewey holds a strong market position as a medium-sized regional law firm with a diversified portfolio of legal services. Their business model focuses on providing tailored legal and financial strategies to both organizations and individuals, supported by multiple office locations and a comprehensive online presence. The firm leverages digital tools for client engagement and marketing, including blogs, case studies, and client portals, indicating a focus on client retention and thought leadership. The presence of social media channels and detailed resource sections suggests active marketing and community engagement. No parent or subsidiary companies were identified, indicating independent operation. The firm’s growth indicators include recent news and events updates, reflecting ongoing business activity.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and a cookie consent mechanism aligned with GDPR requirements. Use of Cloudflare and reputable analytics tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar suggests reliance on trusted third-party services. No critical security headers were explicitly detected, which is an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the HTML content. The site lacks explicit incident response or security policy disclosures, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but would benefit from formalized security headers and documented incident response procedures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate risks from vulnerable or outdated components.
  3. Ensure all web forms include anti-CSRF tokens and robust input validation to prevent injection attacks.
  4. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan on the website to improve transparency and preparedness.
  5. Maintain and regularly update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and best practices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Bowditch & Dewey
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bowditch & Dewey
Description
Attorneys | Boston, Framingham, Plymouth, Worcester. Provides legal and financial strategy services to organizations and individuals.
Key services
Legal counsel, Financial strategy, Litigation, Estate planning, Business succession planning, Real estate law
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Cloudflare (implied by cookies), WebToffee Cookie Consent plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
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 and analytics scripts from reputable sources

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Professional law firm website with comprehensive content and resources.
  2. Strong privacy and cookie consent implementation.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to privacy protection or domain registration issues.
  5. Use of reputable third-party analytics and tracking tools.
  6. Multiple office locations and detailed contact information provided.
  7. Good SEO and accessibility practices observed.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress CMS with a modern front-end stack including jQuery and various JavaScript libraries for UI enhancements and analytics integration. Performance is moderate with lazy loading images and asynchronous script loading. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph, and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine visibility. Accessibility features such as skip navigation links and ARIA labels are implemented, supporting inclusive user experience. The site uses a cookie consent plugin (WebToffee) to manage user privacy preferences effectively. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified but Cloudflare services are implied by cookies and scripts. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid with opportunities to optimize security headers and hosting transparency.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with bowditch.com. 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 bowditch.com.

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.