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Security report for hachette.co.uk

Hachette UK · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Hachette UK is a prominent UK trade publishing group operating multiple well-known imprints and serving a broad audience of readers, authors, and educational institutions. The company is part of the global Hachette Livre group and maintains a strong market position in the media and publishing industry. Their website reflects a professional and content-rich digital presence, leveraging WordPress CMS and modern web technologies to deliver an engaging user experience. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and includes comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with active consent management, demonstrating compliance with GDPR requirements. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and security headers, although explicit security policy and incident response information are not publicly available. WHOIS data could not be retrieved due to querying the 'www' subdomain, but the domain is likely legitimate given the brand recognition and website professionalism. Overall, the website is trustworthy, safe, and well-maintained, supporting the company's business objectives effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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. 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

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

  3. 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

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

Keep watching hachette.co.uk

This scan found 23 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

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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
27
Security headers
45
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
69

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

Hachette UK operates in the media sector with a focus on book publishing and educational content. Their business model centers on publishing, author services, and distribution. The company targets readers, authors, and educational markets primarily in the UK. The website indicates a large enterprise with multiple subsidiaries and imprints, reflecting a diversified publishing portfolio. The presence of comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, along with professional branding and content, suggests a mature digital strategy. The company leverages partnerships and maintains active social media channels to engage audiences. No suspicious or unrelated domains are linked, indicating a focused and controlled digital ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security posture with HTTPS enabled and multiple security headers implemented, including Content Security Policy and Strict-Transport-Security. The use of Osano for cookie consent management indicates attention to privacy compliance. However, the absence of a publicly available security policy or incident response contact limits transparency in security governance. No vulnerable libraries or exposed sensitive data were detected. The site does not publish a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file, which could enhance security communication. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved with more explicit security governance disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security governance and practices.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information for security issues.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet or exceed WCAG standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Hachette UK
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Hachette UK
Description
Hachette UK is a leading UK trade publishing group comprised of Hachette Children’s Group, Headline Publishing Group, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Education, Little, Brown Book Group, Octopus Publishing Group, and more.
Key services
Book publishing, Author services, Educational publishing
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Swiper.js, Google Fonts, Osano CMP
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Content Security Policy present
  • Cookie consent management via Osano

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Osano
Marketing tools
Osano Consent Management Platform
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and content-rich.
  2. Uses WordPress CMS with modern frontend libraries.
  3. Has comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent management.
  4. No visible security policy or incident response information.
  5. WHOIS data unavailable due to query on 'www' subdomain; domain likely registered properly.
  6. No adult or questionable content detected.
  7. No suspicious external domains or scripts detected.
  8. Good SEO and accessibility practices observed.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS, utilizing jQuery and Swiper.js for interactive elements, and Google Fonts for typography. Osano CMP is integrated for cookie consent management. The site uses modern CSS and JavaScript practices and is optimized for mobile devices. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement in loading speed. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Accessibility is good but could be further enhanced. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust and professional web presence with room for optimization.
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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