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Security report for firstcollegelincs.co.uk

First College trading name of East Lindsey ITEC Limited · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

First College Lincs, operating under East Lindsey ITEC Limited, is a medium-sized educational institution based in the United Kingdom, specializing in work-based learning, apprenticeships, and short courses across various sectors including hospitality, administration, and early years. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence with clear contact information and social media engagement. Technically, the site is built on WordPress using Elementor and Astra theme, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and anti-spam measures in place, though it lacks some security headers and explicit privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the domain registration data aligns well with the business claims, supporting legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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. 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. 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';…

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

Keep watching firstcollegelincs.co.uk

This scan found 22 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.

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  • 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
67
Security headers
25
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
68

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

The organization targets learners, employers, and job seekers, offering a range of educational services and support to facilitate career progression and work readiness. The business model focuses on work-based learning and apprenticeships, leveraging partnerships with recognized certification bodies and local authorities. The company has a stable market position with a long-established domain and registered charity status, enhancing credibility. The website content and structure support clear navigation and user engagement, though privacy compliance could be improved.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS and anti-spam protection via CleanTalk. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are provided, indicating room for maturity in security governance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Enhancing privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms would also improve compliance and user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and prominently link a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to strengthen security posture.
  3. Create a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet WCAG standards for broader user inclusivity.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
East Lindsey ITEC Limited
Registration number
1802908
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
First College trading name of East Lindsey ITEC Limited
Description
First College offers work based learning and qualifications from hospitality to administration, early years to management. They provide apprenticeships, short courses, and support to help learners find work and be work ready.
Key services
Work based learning, Apprenticeships, Short courses, Information and advice services, Job finding support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, Astra Theme, jQuery, CleanTalk Anti-Spam
Frameworks
Elementor
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anti-spam plugin (CleanTalk) in use
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
CleanTalk pixel
Marketing tools
CleanTalk Anti-Spam
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website uses WordPress with Elementor and Astra theme.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policy found on the homepage or header/footer.
  3. Contact information is clearly displayed including email and phone.
  4. Social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
  5. Security headers are not explicitly visible in HTML; HTTPS is enforced.
  6. CleanTalk anti-spam plugin is active indicating spam protection.
  7. No forms detected in the provided HTML content.
  8. Multiple partner logos and certifications displayed indicating trust.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file found.
  10. Content is focused on education and work-based learning.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern WordPress CMS with Elementor page builder and Astra theme, indicating a flexible and widely supported technical stack. The presence of CleanTalk anti-spam plugin suggests active spam mitigation. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, especially in loading external fonts and scripts. Mobile responsiveness is good, but accessibility features are basic. SEO is supported by meta tags and structured content but could be enhanced with more comprehensive metadata and schema markup. Hosting details are not explicitly disclosed in the HTML content.
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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