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Security report for farmingmonthly.co.uk

Farming Monthly Ltd · Energy · United Kingdom

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Email security and 3 other checks.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Farming Monthly Ltd operates a well-established UK-based digital and print media platform focused on farming and agriculture news, events, and classifieds. The website serves a professional audience including farmers, landowners, and agricultural professionals, offering comprehensive sector news, event information, and advertising opportunities. The company maintains a consistent brand presence with active social media channels and a digital magazine edition. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern SEO and analytics tools such as Yoast SEO, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager. It integrates social media SDKs and streaming content from Spotify, enhancing user engagement. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and moderate performance, with room for improvement in accessibility and security headers. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced, secure form handling, and cookie consent mechanisms in place. However, the absence of explicit security headers and incident response policies suggests opportunities to strengthen defenses and compliance. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected in the content or scripts. Overall, the site presents a low-risk profile with professional content and business credibility. The WHOIS data is unavailable due to query errors, but the domain and content consistency support legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and improving accessibility compliance to further solidify trust and resilience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  3. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  4. 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

  5. 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

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

Keep watching farmingmonthly.co.uk

This scan found 29 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
50
DNS health
55
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
73
Average
45

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

Farming Monthly Ltd holds a strong position in the UK agricultural media sector, targeting a niche but essential market segment of farming professionals and stakeholders. Its business model revolves around content publication, advertising, event promotion, and classified listings, generating revenue through subscriptions, advertising sales, and partnerships. The company leverages digital platforms and social media to expand reach and engagement. Growth indicators include active content updates, diversified content categories, and multimedia integration such as podcasts and video playlists. The partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms and digital content distributors like Issuu. The company demonstrates a professional operational approach with clear contact channels and legal compliance, positioning it well for sustained market presence.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and secure data collection via POST forms. Cookie consent and privacy policies indicate GDPR compliance awareness. However, the lack of advanced security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options represents a gap in defense-in-depth strategies. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which could hinder rapid response to security events. Third-party scripts from trusted sources are used, but continuous monitoring is recommended to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security maturity is good but can be enhanced by formalizing policies and implementing additional technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and plugins to identify and remediate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance website accessibility features to meet WCAG standards and improve user inclusivity.
  5. Consider DNSSEC deployment to strengthen domain name system security and prevent spoofing.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Farming Monthly Ltd
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Farming Monthly Ltd
Description
UK farming & agriculture news, agricultural shows & events, jobs, directory & farm classifieds from Farming Monthly magazine.
Key services
Agricultural news and updates, Event listings, Job postings, Agricultural directory, Farm classifieds, Digital magazine edition, Advertising services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, jQuery, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook SDK, Spotify embed, Mailchimp newsletter form
Frameworks
WordPress theme _city-desk
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method
  • Cookie consent banner implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel (via Facebook SDK)
Marketing tools
Mailchimp (newsletter), Google Site Kit
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional farming and agriculture news portal with extensive content and categories.
  2. Uses WordPress CMS with common plugins and SEO optimizations.
  3. Includes social media integration and multiple external links to trusted platforms.
  4. Has clear contact information and legal pages (privacy, terms, disclaimer).
  5. Cookie consent banner is implemented indicating GDPR awareness.
  6. No signs of malware, phishing, or suspicious behavior detected.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable due to query error but no negative indicators from site content.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress CMS using a custom theme (_city-desk) and integrates several modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook SDK, and Spotify embeds. SEO is enhanced via Yoast SEO plugin with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) for rich search results. The site uses minified CSS and JS assets for performance optimization and includes responsive design elements for mobile compatibility. Newsletter subscription is managed via Mailchimp with a secure POST form. While performance is moderate, further optimization could be achieved by reducing external dependencies and leveraging caching strategies. The technical stack is current and well-maintained, supporting a professional 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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