Skip to main content

Security report for britishcouncil.lv

British Council · Education · Latvia

Partial score · DNS & email only

59/100

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

The British Council Latvia website serves as the official online presence of the British Council's Latvian branch, promoting cultural, educational, and artistic exchange between the UK and Latvia. The organization operates as a non-profit entity focused on fostering trust and understanding through arts, education, and creative skills development. The website reflects a medium-sized organization with consistent branding and professional content tailored to Latvian residents interested in British cultural programs. Technically, the website is built on the Drupal CMS platform, integrating modern technologies such as Google Tag Manager and OneTrust for cookie consent management. Hosting appears to leverage Akamai's CDN services, contributing to moderate performance and good mobile optimization. The site includes comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, demonstrating GDPR compliance and user consent mechanisms. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs security headers, and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security policies or incident response contacts, which could enhance transparency and trust. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected in the accessible content. Overall, the website presents a trustworthy and professional digital presence aligned with the British Council's global standards. The absence of WHOIS data limits domain registration analysis, but the site's content and branding strongly support its legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include publishing a formal security policy, adding vulnerability disclosure information, and providing incident response contacts to further strengthen security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 100 · High
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

4 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

  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

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

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

Keep watching britishcouncil.lv

This scan found 12 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

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
0
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
59

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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

British Council Latvia operates within the education and cultural sectors, leveraging its global brand to deliver arts, education, and creative skills programs locally. Its business model is non-profit, focusing on societal growth and cultural exchange rather than commercial revenue. The organization targets Latvian residents and institutions interested in British culture and education. The website's partnership ecosystem includes global British Council networks and uses trusted third-party services for analytics and consent management. Growth indicators include active content updates and compliance with GDPR. The organization's market position is strong due to its international reputation and local presence. Competitive advantages include official UK government backing, established brand recognition, and comprehensive program offerings. Revenue streams are likely grant and government-funded rather than commercial. The website supports these operations with professional content, clear navigation, and multilingual support (Latvian and English).

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of security headers, and robust cookie consent mechanisms denying analytics and advertising storage by default. The integration of OneTrust indicates a commitment to privacy compliance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms represents a gap in transparency and readiness. Compliance with GDPR is evident through consent banners and privacy policies. The site lacks explicit mention of ISO 27001, NIST, or other frameworks, which could be considered for enhanced assurance. Incident response readiness is unclear due to missing contact channels. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved by formalizing policies and disclosure practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a detailed security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security and abuse emails.
  4. Regularly review and update third-party libraries to avoid potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by detailing data retention policies and user data handling procedures.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
British Council
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
British Council
Description
Mēs veicinām mieru un izaugsmi, veidojot uzticēšanos un sapratni starp Lielbritānijas iedzīvotājiem un cilvēkiem visā pasaulē. Latvijā darbojamies mākslas, izglītības, kultūras un radošajās jomās, stiprinot sabiedrības saliedētību un attīstot mūsdienām nozīmīgās prasmes.
Key services
Arts programs, Education, Cultural exchange, Creative skills development
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent, jQuery, Drupal CMS
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with denied default for analytics and ads
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics via GTM
Marketing tools
OneTrust
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenge
  2. Uses Drupal CMS with modern tracking and consent tools
  3. Strong privacy and cookie consent implementation
  4. No explicit security policy or incident response info found
  5. WHOIS data unavailable due to query limit error
  6. Content is professional and consistent with British Council branding
  7. No suspicious or malicious indicators detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries and Google Tag Manager for analytics. It uses OneTrust for cookie consent management, ensuring GDPR compliance. Hosting appears to be via Akamai CDN, improving performance and availability. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) are properly implemented for SEO. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Technical debt is minimal, but the site could benefit from enhanced security documentation and incident response readiness to reduce operational risks.
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 britishcouncil.lv. 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 britishcouncil.lv.

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.