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Security report for handel.co.za

Handel · Technology · South Africa

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

47/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Handel is a South African-based small B2B marketing and communications agency offering a variety of services including brand positioning, content creation, event management, and digital marketing. The company targets business clients seeking creative and impactful marketing solutions. The website is built on HubSpot CMS and hosted behind Cloudflare, indicating a modern digital infrastructure. However, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS support, which is a critical security flaw. Security headers are partially implemented, but the absence of HTTPS significantly reduces the overall security posture. Privacy compliance is weak, with no privacy or cookie policies found. Contact information is clearly presented, enhancing business credibility. Overall, the site demonstrates good content quality and professional design but requires urgent security improvements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

  2. 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

  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"

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

Keep watching handel.co.za

This scan found 17 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
0
Security headers
45
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
47

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

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 handel.co.za, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for handel.co.za right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Handel positions itself as a niche B2B marketing service provider with a focus on creative and agile solutions. The company leverages a network of skilled professionals to deliver tailored marketing campaigns and communications strategies. The presence of client testimonials and detailed case studies suggests a strong client relationship focus and trust-building approach. The business model is service-oriented, targeting medium to large enterprises needing specialized marketing support. The use of HubSpot CMS and Cloudflare indicates investment in reliable technology platforms. The company maintains a LinkedIn presence, supporting professional networking and brand visibility.

Security posture

The website's security maturity is low due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, which exposes users to potential interception and data integrity risks. While some security headers like HSTS and Content-Security-Policy are present, they are not fully configured to maximize protection. The absence of OCSP stapling and session resumption mechanisms further weakens the security posture. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, indicating limited transparency in security governance. The site does not provide vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files, which are best practices for security communication. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues is critical to protect user data and maintain trust.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and configure modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) with strong cipher suites.
  3. Enhance security headers by including HSTS with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Publish privacy and cookie policies to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  5. Add a security policy and incident response contact information to increase transparency.
  6. Implement vulnerability disclosure mechanisms such as a security.txt file.
  7. Regularly audit and update all third-party scripts and libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  8. Improve accessibility features to enhance user experience for all visitors.
  9. Optimize site performance to reduce load times and improve SEO rankings.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on HubSpot CMS and uses Cloudflare as a CDN and security provider. It employs Blaze Slider JavaScript libraries for interactive content. The site has good mobile responsiveness and SEO meta tags but suffers from poor SSL/TLS configuration, resulting in no HTTPS support. Performance metrics are missing or zero, indicating potential issues with performance monitoring or reporting. The site uses modern CSS and JavaScript but could benefit from enhanced accessibility and performance optimizations. DNS records and SPF configuration are correctly set up, supporting email deliverability and domain legitimacy. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern but requires critical 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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