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Security report for cottonbureau.com

Cotton Bureau · E-commerce · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Cotton Bureau operates as a curated e-commerce marketplace specializing in high-quality graphic tees, hoodies, and other apparel. The platform targets designers, creative communities, and brands seeking a risk-free way to sell custom merchandise. The business model leverages on-demand printing and pre-order campaigns, handling production, shipping, and customer service internally. The website presents a professional, content-rich experience with strong branding and user testimonials, positioning itself as a trusted niche player in the print-on-demand apparel market. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Vue.js, Stripe for payments, Facebook Pixel, and Google Analytics for tracking, hosted on Linode infrastructure. However, performance is suboptimal with slow load times and a large number of resources. Mobile optimization and SEO are good, but accessibility is basic. Security posture is weakened by the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, despite having HSTS enabled. This represents a critical risk that should be addressed promptly. Privacy compliance is partial; while a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service are present, no cookie consent mechanism was detected, which may affect GDPR compliance. Contact information is limited to email addresses without phone or physical address details. Overall, the site is credible and trustworthy but requires urgent improvements in security and privacy practices to enhance user trust and regulatory compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of cottonbureau.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

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

Keep watching cottonbureau.com

This scan found 17 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
97
Security headers
30
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
65

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

Cotton Bureau holds a strong market position as a curated, quality-focused apparel marketplace. Its competitive advantage lies in its curated design selection, high-quality products, and comprehensive service model that includes printing, shipping, and customer support. Revenue streams include product sales via on-demand and pre-order campaigns, as well as subscription services like Cotton Bureau Pro and Plus. The target customers are independent designers, creative communities, charities, and brands looking for hassle-free merchandise solutions. The company demonstrates growth potential through its expanding product catalog and partnerships with notable brands and creators. The ecosystem includes payment processing via Stripe and marketing integrations with Facebook and Google. Strategic observations suggest focusing on improving site performance and security to support scaling and maintain customer trust.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate but with critical gaps. The lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols expose users to potential data interception and undermine trust. The presence of HSTS is positive but insufficient without proper HTTPS enforcement. No major vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or POODLE were detected, and no exposed sensitive data was found. However, the absence of OCSP stapling and session resumption indicates room for improvement in SSL/TLS configuration. Compliance gaps include missing cookie consent mechanisms, which may affect GDPR adherence. Incident response and security policy documentation are not publicly available, limiting transparency. Overall, the security culture appears basic and would benefit from enhanced controls and user communication.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate and enable HTTPS with modern TLS protocols (1.2 and 1.3).
  2. Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Optimize website performance by reducing resource count and improving load times.
  4. Enable additional security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and X-Frame-Options.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible to users.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern JavaScript framework (Vue.js) and integrates key third-party services such as Stripe for payments, Facebook Pixel, and Google Analytics for marketing and analytics. Hosting is provided by Linode, with DNS managed via Linode name servers. Despite modern technologies, the site suffers from slow load times (approx. 19 seconds) and a high number of resources (366), indicating potential technical debt or optimization opportunities. Accessibility features are basic, and SEO is adequately addressed with proper meta tags. The absence of a CMS suggests a custom-built platform. Technical risks include the lack of SSL/TLS security and missing DNSSEC, which could impact business operations and user trust if not remediated.
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. 73/100Medium28 findingsView report
  2. 73/100Medium28 findingsView report
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