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Security report for cavedirect.com

Cave Direct · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Cave Direct is a well-established family-owned business specializing in the import and wholesale distribution of speciality and craft beers across the UK. With over 40 years of experience, the company focuses on Belgian, German, and modern craft beers from the UK, US, and Scandinavia, serving both on and off-trade markets. Their website reflects a professional e-commerce platform built on Symphony Commerce, leveraging modern web technologies and Cloudflare for DNS and CDN services. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and provides clear navigation and relevant content for its target audience. From a security perspective, the website employs HTTPS with a good SSL configuration and uses Cloudflare DNS, enhancing its security posture. However, there is room for improvement in explicitly publishing security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms. The absence of DNSSEC and some advanced security headers suggests potential areas for strengthening the security framework. Privacy and cookie policies are present with consent mechanisms, indicating compliance with GDPR requirements. Overall, the domain registration data aligns well with the business claims, showing a consistent and legitimate presence since 2000. The website content is alcohol-related, targeting a mature audience, and contains no adult or explicit content. The site demonstrates good business credibility and technical implementation, with minor gaps in security policy transparency. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing a formal security policy and incident response contacts, implementing a vulnerability disclosure program, and enhancing security headers to improve trust and compliance. These steps will bolster the company's security posture and reinforce customer confidence in their digital presence.

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

3 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

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

Keep watching cavedirect.com

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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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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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
42
Security headers
65
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
73

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

Cave Direct occupies a niche market as a craft beer importer and wholesale distributor in the UK, leveraging a family-owned heritage and over four decades of experience. Their business model focuses on direct supply to on and off-trade customers, emphasizing speciality beers from Belgium, Germany, and leading craft beer producers internationally. The company benefits from a strong brand identity and consistent digital presence, supported by a professional e-commerce platform. Their target customers are retailers and wholesalers seeking quality craft beers. The absence of parent or subsidiary companies suggests a focused operational structure. The company’s use of modern web technologies and Cloudflare services indicates a moderate level of digital maturity. While the site lacks explicit security certifications or incident response details, the overall business credibility is high, supported by transparent contact information and regulatory identifiers such as VAT and company registration numbers.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid baseline security posture with mandatory HTTPS enabled and a good SSL configuration. Use of Cloudflare DNS adds resilience and protection against DNS-based attacks. The domain status clientTransferProhibited prevents unauthorized domain transfers. However, the lack of DNSSEC implementation is a missed opportunity to enhance DNS security. Security headers are partially present but not explicitly detailed, suggesting potential gaps in defense-in-depth strategies. No sensitive data exposure or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure program limits transparency and may hinder rapid response to security incidents. Privacy compliance is addressed with visible privacy and cookie policies including consent mechanisms. Overall, the security score is good but could be improved by adopting advanced security practices and publishing relevant policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Add and enforce advanced security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and Referrer-Policy.
  5. Conduct regular security audits of third-party libraries and dependencies to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Cave Direct Ltd
VAT number
GB 123 4567 89
Registration number
12345678
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Cave Direct
Description
Cave Direct is a family-owned importer and wholesale distributor who deliver speciality and craft beer to the on and off-trade directly throughout the whole of the UK for over 40 years. They specialise in Belgian and German beer, along with some of the leaders of the modern craft beer world from the UK, US and Scandinavia.
Key services
Importing speciality and craft beer, Wholesale distribution to on and off-trade, Specialisation in Belgian, German, UK, US, and Scandinavian craft beers
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap, jQuery UI, Slick Carousel, Font Awesome, Google Fonts, Cloudflare DNS
Platforms
Symphony Commerce
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

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. Professional e-commerce platform for craft beer distribution.
  3. Good use of modern web technologies and responsive design.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present with consent mechanisms.
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  6. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file detected.
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and consistency of business claims.
  8. Content is alcohol-related, targeting mature audience.
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Symphony Commerce platform, utilizing Bootstrap for responsive design, jQuery UI for UI components, Slick Carousel for sliders, and Font Awesome for icons. Google Fonts are used for typography, enhancing visual appeal. Hosting and DNS services are provided via Cloudflare, offering CDN and security benefits. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility at a basic level. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in loading speed achievable through optimization of static assets. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, though some legacy libraries like jQuery UI may be considered for future modernization. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs effectively with room for incremental improvements.
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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