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Security report for grubstreet.co.uk

Grub Street Publishing · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, DNS health and 2 other checks.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Grub Street Publishing is a UK-based independent publisher specializing in niche markets such as aviation and food & wine books. The company operates a professional e-commerce website built on WordPress with WooCommerce, offering a catalog of books including signed editions. The website demonstrates good digital maturity with modern technologies, responsive design, and active social media engagement. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and Google reCAPTCHA, though it lacks some security headers and formal privacy and cookie policies, which are compliance gaps. Overall, the website is trustworthy and well-positioned in its niche market but should improve privacy compliance and security best practices.

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

6 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

  2. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Weak SPF Policy

      SPF record has permissive policy allowing any server to send email

      What to do: Use -all or ~all qualifier for better email security

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching grubstreet.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

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

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Full report

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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
47
Security headers
40
Email security
55
DNS health
50
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
61

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 company targets enthusiasts and collectors in aviation and culinary fields, leveraging direct online sales and signed editions to differentiate itself. The business model is retail-focused with a specialized catalog. The website content and social media presence support brand credibility and customer engagement. The domain age and registration data align with a legitimate, established business. No suspicious patterns or privacy protection concerns were found. Growth opportunities include enhancing privacy compliance and expanding digital marketing efforts.

Security posture

The website uses HTTPS and Google reCAPTCHA to protect user interactions and data submissions. However, it lacks explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options, which could improve defense against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened with additional headers and formal policies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Implement security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to enhance transparency.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve inclusivity and compliance.
  5. Regularly audit and update plugins and themes to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Grub Street Publishing
Description
Grub Street Publishing is a UK-based independent publisher specializing in books on aviation, food & wine, and related subjects. They offer a catalog of books including signed copies, and have a focus on niche markets such as aviation history and culinary arts.
Key services
Publishing and selling books, Offering signed editions, Providing news and event information, Maintaining author and recipe content
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, jQuery, Font Awesome, Google reCAPTCHA, Google Fonts, Google Analytics (Beehive Analytics Pro)
Frameworks
WooFramework, Canvas Theme
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of updated libraries and plugins

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Beehive Analytics Pro)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Marketing tools
Beehive Analytics Pro
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained WordPress site with e-commerce capabilities.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. Contact information is primarily via contact form and social media; no direct emails or phone numbers found.
  4. Security posture is good with HTTPS and reCAPTCHA but lacks some security headers and formal policies.
  5. Content is relevant and well organized for niche publishing market.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality and Gravity Forms for data collection. It uses modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery and Font Awesome icons. Google Fonts and Google Analytics are integrated for typography and analytics respectively. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in caching and asset optimization. Hosting provider details are not explicit. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid and appropriate for a small independent publisher.
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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