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Security report for costa.co.uk

Costa · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Costa Coffee is the UK's largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain, offering a wide range of coffee products, loyalty programs, and business coffee solutions. The website reflects a mature and well-established brand with a strong market position in the retail and hospitality sectors. The digital presence is robust, leveraging modern web technologies such as React and Gatsby, with good performance and mobile optimization. Privacy and cookie compliance are well implemented with clear policies and consent mechanisms. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security and incident response policies are not publicly found. Overall, the website demonstrates professionalism, trustworthiness, and a comprehensive digital strategy aligned with business goals.

Scanned

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

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

      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

  3. 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 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';…

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain staging.costa.co.uk points to unregistered service costa-co-uk-uat-lb-1311542805.eu-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching costa.co.uk

This scan found 15 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
0
Security headers
60
Email security
87
DNS health
50
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
63
Average
60

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

Costa Coffee operates primarily in the retail coffee and hospitality sector, targeting UK consumers and business clients. The business model includes physical stores, loyalty programs (Costa Club), online ordering, and gift card services. The company maintains a broad partnership ecosystem including charitable foundations and business services. The website content and linked domains indicate a mature enterprise with extensive market reach and brand consistency. Growth indicators include app-based loyalty rewards and promotional deals. The company leverages multiple social media platforms for marketing and customer engagement.

Security posture

The website exhibits a high level of security maturity with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive cookie consent management via OneTrust, and presence of key security headers. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a dedicated security policy page and incident response contact details suggests room for improvement in transparency and readiness. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from enhanced communication of security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly review and update cookie and privacy policies to maintain GDPR and other compliance standards.
  5. Enhance transparency by including certifications or compliance badges related to security and privacy.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Costa
Description
Costa is the Nation's Favourite coffee shop and the largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain in the UK.
Key services
Coffee shop retail, Loyalty program (Costa Club), Online ordering and delivery, Gift cards, Business coffee solutions
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Gatsby, Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent
Frameworks
React, Gatsby
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with granular controls
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
OneTrust
Marketing tools
OneTrust Cookie Consent
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 challenge
  2. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanism present
  3. No explicit security policy or incident response contact found
  4. Strong brand presence and consistent professional design
  5. Use of modern web technologies and good SEO practices
  6. Multiple external and partner domains linked, consistent with business operations
  7. Social media presence on major platforms including Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using modern JavaScript frameworks React and Gatsby, enabling fast loading and good SEO optimization. Hosting appears to be via Akamai CDN, contributing to performance and availability. The site includes Google Tag Manager for analytics and OneTrust for cookie consent management, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Accessibility features and mobile responsiveness are well implemented. There is no indication of legacy or vulnerable libraries. The technical stack supports scalability and good user experience, though continuous monitoring for emerging vulnerabilities is recommended.
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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