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Security report for clearleft.com

Clearleft Ltd. · Technology · United Kingdom

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

Security score

57/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Clearleft Ltd. is a well-established UK-based strategic design consultancy founded in 2004, specializing in website and digital service design. The company targets design leaders and ambitious organizations seeking to embed design as a strategic capability. Their business model focuses on providing expert consultancy, design services, and freelance collaboration. The website reflects a mature market position with professional branding, clear service offerings, and active engagement through podcasts and events. Technically, the website is built with modern web standards, uses privacy-respecting analytics, and is hosted on DNSimple infrastructure. The site is fast, mobile-optimized, and accessible, with good SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and domain transfer protections, though improvements are recommended such as enabling DNSSEC and adding security headers. Privacy compliance is good with a clear privacy policy but lacks a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site demonstrates high business credibility and trustworthiness.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

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 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 Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • 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 clearleft.com

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
50
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
57

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

Clearleft operates in the technology sector as a specialized design consultancy with a focus on strategic partnerships. Their competitive advantage lies in their long-standing reputation, comprehensive service offerings, and thought leadership via podcasts and events. Revenue streams likely include consultancy fees, design projects, and freelance collaborations. The target customer segment includes design leaders and organizations aiming to improve digital experiences. The company maintains a strong partnership ecosystem visible through social media and event sponsorships. Growth indicators include ongoing hiring and active content publication. Operationally, Clearleft emphasizes tailored client engagement and expertise development.

Security posture

Clearleft's security maturity is moderate to high. The website enforces HTTPS and uses domain transfer protection, indicating awareness of basic security hygiene. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represents areas for improvement. No incident response or security policy information is published, which could hinder transparency and readiness. The use of privacy-focused analytics (Plausible) aligns with GDPR compliance efforts. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the security posture supports business continuity but would benefit from enhanced policies and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to harden the website against common attacks.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply fully with privacy regulations.
  4. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to increase transparency and preparedness.
  5. Consider creating a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Clearleft Ltd.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Clearleft Ltd.
Description
We help design leaders get the most from their products, services & teams. We partner with ambitious organisations to establish design as a strategic capability. We design websites and digital services, helping our clients establish their own capacity and expertise as we do so.
Key services
Website design, Digital service design, Design leadership consulting, Freelance collaboration
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, SVG, Plausible Analytics
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Plausible Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and professional design.
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  3. Clear and consistent branding and messaging.
  4. Contact information is prominently displayed with verified company email and physical address.
  5. No phone numbers explicitly labeled as company contact found.
  6. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected.
  7. No terms of service page detected.
  8. Social media presence across multiple platforms.
  9. Use of privacy-respecting analytics (Plausible).
  10. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, SVG, and JavaScript. It uses Plausible Analytics, a privacy-respecting analytics platform, indicating a focus on user privacy. The site is hosted with DNSimple, as indicated by the nameservers, and the domain is registered with 1API GmbH. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good accessibility features. Performance is fast with efficient asset loading and caching. No CMS is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or static site architecture. Technical debt appears low, but enabling DNSSEC and security headers would improve the security posture. SEO is well implemented with proper meta tags and structured data in JSON-LD format.
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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