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Security report for cityplumbing.co.uk

City Plumbing Supplies Holdings Limited · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

City Plumbing Supplies Holdings Limited operates as the UK's largest builders' merchants, specializing in plumbing supplies, bathroom stores, and related trade quality products. The company serves primarily trade professionals and builders across the UK, offering extensive product categories including boilers, radiators, heating, plumbing, bathrooms, kitchens, spares, renewables, tools, and electrical supplies. Their business model combines e-commerce with a widespread physical branch network, supported by services such as contact-free delivery, click & collect, and a loyalty rewards program. The company is part of the Highbourne Group Ltd, indicating a strong corporate backing and market presence. Technically, the website is built on a modern React framework with integrations of various third-party services including Google Tag Manager, PayPal SDK, Trustpilot, OneTrust for cookie consent, Monetate for personalization, Medallia for feedback, Increasingly for marketing, and SnapEngage for live chat. The site uses Contentful as its CMS and hosts static assets on Google Cloud Storage. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, with comprehensive meta tags and structured content. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with an excellent SSL configuration and employs cookie consent mechanisms that respect user privacy and GDPR compliance. While explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not visibly declared in the HTML, the site uses security cookies and reputable third-party scripts, minimizing exposure to common vulnerabilities. No sensitive data is exposed in the HTML, and no known vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected. Overall, City Plumbing's website reflects a mature digital infrastructure with strong business credibility and compliance posture. The site is trustworthy, professional, and well-aligned with its business objectives. Strategic recommendations include enhancing explicit security header implementation, providing clearer security policy and incident response information, and improving transparency around data protection officer contacts and vulnerability disclosures.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of cityplumbing.co.uk. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
63/ 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

2 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

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

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

Keep watching cityplumbing.co.uk

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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
0
Security headers
75
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
63
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

City Plumbing holds a dominant position in the UK builders' merchant sector, leveraging a broad product portfolio and extensive branch network to serve trade professionals. Their integration of digital services such as online ordering, click & collect, and loyalty rewards indicates a customer-centric approach focused on convenience and retention. The company benefits from its association with the Highbourne Group Ltd, which provides corporate stability and potential for cross-business synergies. The website's comprehensive product categorization and marketing campaigns (e.g., seasonal deals, new arrivals, app promotions) suggest active engagement in market growth and customer acquisition. Partnerships with payment processors like PayPal and marketing platforms like Monetate and Emarsys enhance their operational capabilities. The presence of a dedicated careers site and supplier hub reflects organizational maturity and supply chain management focus.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with mandatory HTTPS and strong SSL configuration. The use of OneTrust for cookie consent ensures compliance with privacy regulations and user control over data. Security cookies are employed to protect sessions and prevent fraudulent activities. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options in the HTML is a gap that could be addressed to further harden the site against common web attacks. No exposed credentials, sensitive data, or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The integration of reputable third-party services is managed carefully, but ongoing audits are recommended to mitigate supply chain risks. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact information limits transparency and may impact user trust in security matters.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly declare security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and provide dedicated incident response contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ emails) to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and dependencies to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance data protection officer visibility by publishing contact information to comply with GDPR and improve user trust.
  5. Maintain and improve cookie consent mechanisms ensuring granular user control and compliance with evolving privacy regulations.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
City Plumbing Supplies Holdings Limited
Registration number
2489546
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
City Plumbing Supplies Holdings Limited
Description
City Plumbing are the UK's largest builders' merchants, supplying tens of thousands of trade quality products that are available for contact free delivery or collection
Key services
Plumbing supplies, Bathroom stores, Trade quality products, Contact free delivery, Click & collect, Loyalty rewards
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Fonts, PayPal SDK, Trustpilot widget, OneTrust cookie consent, Monetate, Medallia, Increasingly, SnapEngage
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security cookies for session and fraud prevention (per cookie policy)
  • Cookie consent mechanism with granular controls
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of reputable third-party scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Bannercrowd, Swayer
Marketing tools
Monetate, Emarsys, Increasingly, Medallia
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 no blocking or WAF challenges
  2. Comprehensive product catalog with detailed categories and subcategories
  3. Strong integration of third-party services for analytics, marketing, and customer support
  4. Robust cookie consent and privacy management via OneTrust
  5. Multiple trust signals including Google site verification and social media presence
  6. No exposed sensitive data or obvious security vulnerabilities in the HTML content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using a modern React framework with a Contentful CMS backend, indicating a contemporary and scalable architecture. It leverages multiple third-party integrations for analytics, marketing, payment processing, and customer support, demonstrating a mature digital ecosystem. Static assets are served via Google Cloud Storage, supporting reliable content delivery. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured content. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in loading speed by optimizing third-party scripts and resource delivery. The technical stack supports a rich user experience with dynamic content and personalized marketing capabilities. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and streamline script management to reduce technical debt and improve resilience.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 66/100Medium23 findingsView report
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