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Security report for gmb.org.uk

GMB Union · Non-profit · United Kingdom

Partial score · DNS & email only

55/100

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

GMB Union is a well-established UK trade union with a mature domain and a large membership base exceeding 500,000. The website serves as a comprehensive platform for union campaigns, news, member benefits, and sector-specific advice, targeting workers across public and private sectors. The technical infrastructure is based on MODX Revolution CMS, hosted on a Plesk platform with nginx web server, and uses modern JavaScript libraries for enhanced user experience. However, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support HTTPS, which is a significant security concern. Privacy and cookie policies are present and indicate GDPR compliance, but no explicit security or incident response policies are found. Overall, the website is professionally designed, content-rich, and trustworthy but requires urgent improvements in its security posture to protect user data and enhance trust.

Scanned

3 of 7 checks could not complete. The site may be unreachable or blocking automated scans, so the results below cover only what could be checked. Try a rescan later.

NIS2 and GDPR posture

NIS2 outside view
Not assessed
GDPR outside view
Not assessed

Both readouts depend on the site's pages, which could not be loaded in this scan.

Priority findings

1 finding 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.

    • 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

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

Keep watching gmb.org.uk

This scan found 7 issues across 4 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
Email security
50
DNS health
70
Network security
100
Average
55

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • GDPR outside view: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention gmb.org.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,882
Employees
0
Customers
1,877
Third parties
5
Weak passwords
8%

4 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for gmb.org.uk.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

GMB Union operates as a non-profit trade union with a strong market position in the UK labor sector. Its business model revolves around membership services, campaigning, and advocacy for workers' rights. The union covers multiple sectors including energy, transport, public services, retail, manufacturing, education, and healthcare. The website reflects a mature organization with a long history (130 years) and a large network of trained representatives and branches. The union leverages social media and digital campaigns to engage members and the public. The domain registration is consistent with the organization's profile, and the hosting provider is a reputable DNS and hosting company. The union's digital presence supports its strategic goals of member engagement and advocacy.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. While some security headers like Strict-Transport-Security are present, the lack of modern TLS protocols and strong cipher suites further weakens the security. No evidence of security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms is found, indicating gaps in security governance and transparency. The site uses HttpOnly cookies which is a positive practice. Overall, the security maturity is low and requires immediate remediation to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire website.
  2. Enable and configure modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and strong cipher suites.
  3. Implement additional security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  5. Introduce a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  6. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to avoid vulnerabilities.
  7. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data retention policies and user rights clearly.
  8. Improve accessibility features and ensure ongoing compliance with accessibility standards.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on MODX Revolution CMS and hosted on a Plesk-managed nginx server. It uses a variety of JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Slick Carousel, Headroom.js, and Fancybox to provide a rich interactive experience. Google Analytics is integrated for user tracking. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and accessibility tools like ReciteMe. However, the lack of HTTPS and valid SSL certificate is a critical technical deficiency. Performance metrics are not available, but the use of modern libraries and CDN-hosted images suggests moderate to good performance. The domain is hosted by a reputable DNS provider, but domain protection mechanisms like locks are not enabled, which could be improved. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and content-rich website but requires security upgrades.
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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