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Security report for ciobacademy.org

CIOB Academy · Education · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

CIOB Academy is an educational platform dedicated to developing leaders in the construction industry. It offers a variety of courses, webinars, and continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities aimed at advancing careers within the construction sector. The website positions itself as a professional and trusted provider of construction leadership training, targeting construction professionals seeking career advancement. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the Divi theme and integrates WooCommerce for e-commerce capabilities, along with several plugins for course management and marketing analytics. The site employs modern tracking and marketing tools such as Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, and LinkedIn Insight, indicating a mature digital marketing approach. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS and reCAPTCHA for form protection but lacks visible security headers and explicit security policies, which could be improved to enhance trust and compliance. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy, though it would benefit from clearer privacy and contact information to improve user confidence and regulatory compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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

6 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 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';…

  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

      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

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

Keep watching ciobacademy.org

This scan found 25 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
52
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
64

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

The CIOB Academy operates in the education sector, specifically focusing on construction leadership and professional development. Its business model revolves around providing paid courses, webinars, and CPD content to construction professionals. The platform likely generates revenue through course fees and possibly partnerships. The target audience includes construction managers, engineers, and other industry professionals seeking to enhance their skills and credentials. The presence of WooCommerce and Edwiser Bridge plugins suggests integration with learning management systems and e-commerce, supporting a scalable online education business. The company maintains a consistent brand presence and leverages multiple analytics and marketing tools to optimize user engagement and conversion. No direct parent or subsidiary companies were identified, indicating an independent or standalone operation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms from automated abuse. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth capabilities. No evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries was found in the provided content. The lack of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure program indicates room for improvement in transparency and preparedness. The use of privacy and GDPR-related plugins suggests some attention to compliance, but the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies on the analyzed page limits confidence in full compliance. Enhancing security headers, publishing clear policies, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure channel would strengthen the security posture significantly.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and configure security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to improve browser security.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies prominently on the website to enhance GDPR compliance and user trust.
  3. Add clear contact information including company emails and phone numbers to improve business credibility and user support.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly audit and update all plugins and themes to mitigate risks from outdated or vulnerable components.

Contact details published on the site

Registration number
registration number 2193639
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
CIOB Academy
Description
We develop leaders in construction. Advance your career with the CIOB Academy. Choose from a wide range of courses, webinars and CPD.
Key services
construction courses, webinars, CPD (Continuing Professional Development)
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Divi Theme, WooCommerce, Edwiser Bridge, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA, Hotjar, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Annasta WooCommerce Product Filters, Dotdigital for WooCommerce, Complianz GDPR plugin
Frameworks
WordPress CMS, WooCommerce e-commerce
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Use of security and GDPR plugins

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Hotjar, LinkedIn Insight
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, LinkedIn Insight
Marketing tools
Dotdigital for WooCommerce
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional educational platform focused on construction leadership development.
  2. Content is well structured with SEO and social media metadata.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in the analyzed content.
  5. Use of multiple marketing and analytics tools indicates active user engagement tracking.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. WHOIS data is not available, indicating privacy protection or query failure.
  8. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using the Divi theme, which is widely used and supported. It integrates WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality and Edwiser Bridge for course management, indicating a robust LMS integration. The site loads multiple external scripts for analytics and marketing, including Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, and LinkedIn Insight, which provide detailed user behavior tracking. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts with preconnect optimizations, improving performance. The site appears mobile responsive with good SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine understanding. Performance is moderate, likely due to multiple external resources and plugins. Accessibility is basic, with some room for improvement in semantic markup and ARIA attributes. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional online education platform but could benefit from performance tuning and enhanced accessibility features.
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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