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Security report for costcutter.co.uk

Costcutter · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Costcutter is a well-established UK convenience retail brand offering competitive deals on food and drink products through a network of stores. The website serves as a platform to promote offers, provide recipes, and engage with the community, targeting general consumers with a mature audience focus due to alcohol promotions. The digital infrastructure employs common web technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and analytics tools, reflecting a moderate level of digital maturity with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is adequate with cookie consent mechanisms and no visible exposed sensitive data, though there is room for improvement in security headers and explicit incident response information. The WHOIS data query failed due to an invalid subdomain lookup, but external references and content indicate legitimacy and association with parent company Bestway Wholesale. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations, suitable for its retail audience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

5 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 costcutter.co.uk

This scan found 26 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
57
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
62

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

Costcutter operates in the retail convenience sector within the UK, leveraging promotional offers and community engagement to maintain market position. The business model focuses on retail sales supported by digital marketing and customer engagement via newsletters and social media. The company benefits from its association with Bestway Wholesale, enhancing supply chain and operational capabilities. The website's content and linked domains reflect a mature, established brand with a clear target audience and consistent branding. The absence of direct contact information on the homepage suggests a focus on digital engagement channels. The partnership ecosystem includes Bestway and related career portals, indicating a structured corporate environment.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS implied but not explicitly verified in the HTML content. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options indicates potential areas for enhancement. No direct incident response or security contact information is provided, which could hinder rapid response to security events. The use of multiple analytics and tracking services suggests moderate user tracking, balanced by consent mechanisms. Overall, the security maturity is moderate with recommendations to strengthen header policies and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Verify and publicly disclose incident response procedures and security contact channels to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Conduct a thorough SSL/TLS configuration audit to ensure strong encryption and prevent downgrade attacks.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all visitors.
  5. Maintain and regularly update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and user expectations.

Contact details published on the site

Registration number
2059678
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Costcutter
Description
Costcutter provides competitive offers on well-known food and drink brands, targeting consumers looking for deals and promotions in convenience retail.
Key services
Retail convenience store offers, Store locator, Recipes and blog content, Newsletter sign-up for offers and competitions
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Flatpickr, GSAP TweenMax, AddThis, iPerceptions
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, iPerceptions
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity, iPerceptions
Marketing tools
AddThis
Transparency
good

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. Content is professionally presented with clear navigation and offers.
  3. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented and linked.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  5. Social media presence is active on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable due to incorrect WHOIS query on www subdomain.
  7. No visible security headers detected in HTML content; SSL status unknown.
  8. Website targets UK retail consumers with promotional offers and community content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website utilizes a mature technology stack with jQuery and various third-party analytics and marketing tools such as Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and AddThis. The presence of Flatpickr and GSAP TweenMax indicates interactive UI elements. The site is moderately performant with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. However, no CMS or hosting provider is explicitly identified. The HTML structure is valid and includes meta tags for SEO and social media verification. There is an opportunity to modernize the tech stack by reducing reliance on older libraries and improving accessibility compliance. The site is well-branded and consistent, supporting a positive user experience.
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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