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Security report for highlandwholefoods.co.uk

Highland Wholefoods Workers Cooperative Limited Inverness · Retail · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Highland Wholefoods Workers Cooperative Limited Inverness operates as a cooperative retailer and wholesaler specializing in vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, organic, ethical, and eco-friendly food and household products. Established since 1989, it serves the Highlands, Islands, and northeast Scotland with over 5,000 products, targeting families, businesses, and community groups. The business model focuses on ethical shopping and community engagement with physical showrooms and online ordering capabilities. Technically, the website is built on the Spanglefish platform, utilizing legacy JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 1.8.2 and jQuery UI 1.8.13, with assets hosted on Amazon S3. The site demonstrates basic mobile optimization and SEO practices but lacks modern security headers and uses outdated libraries, which pose security risks. Privacy and cookie policies exist but lack active consent mechanisms. Security posture is moderate; HTTPS is implied but no advanced security headers or incident response contacts are visible. The WHOIS lookup failed due to an invalid domain query, limiting verification of domain registration legitimacy. No critical vulnerabilities or malware indicators were found, but outdated libraries and missing security headers reduce the security score. Overall, the website is functional and trustworthy from a business perspective but requires technical and security improvements to enhance compliance, security posture, and user trust. Strategic recommendations include updating JavaScript libraries, implementing security headers, adding cookie consent mechanisms, and clarifying domain registration details.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

5 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching highlandwholefoods.co.uk

This scan found 27 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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Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
15
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
60

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

Highland Wholefoods occupies a niche market in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, focusing on ethical and specialty food retail through a cooperative business model. Its competitive advantage lies in its long-standing presence since 1989, extensive product range, and commitment to fairtrade and living wage principles. Revenue streams likely include retail sales, wholesale supply, and online orders. The target customers are health-conscious consumers, businesses, and community groups valuing organic and ethical products. The partnership ecosystem includes fairtrade organizations and Scottish Living Wage initiatives. Growth indicators include active social media presence and newsletter engagement. Operationally, the cooperative model supports community involvement and ethical sourcing, positioning the business well within its regional market.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate with basic HTTPS usage but lacking in-depth security headers and modern JavaScript libraries. The use of outdated jQuery versions introduces known vulnerabilities that could be exploited. There is no visible incident response or security policy information, and cookie consent mechanisms are absent, indicating compliance gaps with GDPR and related regulations. Data protection practices appear minimal, with no explicit data protection officer contact or vulnerability disclosure policy. The security culture is not clearly communicated on the website, suggesting room for improvement in transparency and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Update all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  4. Publish clear security and privacy policies including incident response contacts and data protection officer information.
  5. Clarify domain registration details and ensure WHOIS information is accurate and accessible to improve trustworthiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Highland Wholefoods Workers Cooperative Limited Inverness
Description
Highland Wholefoods stocks a huge range of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, organic, ethical, and eco-friendly food, drink, and household products. Over 5,000 products and counting. Serving families, businesses, and community groups in the Highlands, Islands, and northeast Scotland since 1989.
Key services
Supplying vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, organic, and eco-friendly food and household products, Online ordering, Physical showrooms in Inverness and Skye, Deliveries to Highlands, Islands, and northeast Scotland
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.8.2, jQuery UI 1.8.13, Superfish menu plugin, Fancybox 1.3.4, Google Analytics (ga.js), Spanglefish platform scripts and CSS
Platforms
Spanglefish CMS/platform
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
50/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by canonical link https://)
  • No visible exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Newsletter subscription via subscribepage.io
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF detected.
  2. Content is focused on ethical, organic, and specialty food retail in Scottish Highlands.
  3. No visible contact emails or phone numbers explicitly labeled on homepage content.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present but lack explicit consent mechanisms.
  5. Use of outdated JavaScript libraries introduces potential security risks.
  6. No visible security headers or advanced security policies detected.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable due to invalid domain query; domain legitimacy partially unverifiable.
  8. Social media presence on Facebook and Instagram linked.
  9. Use of third-party newsletter service subscribepage.io for mailing list.
  10. No forms detected on homepage; newsletter signup links externally.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Spanglefish CMS platform with static assets hosted on Amazon S3. It uses legacy JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 1.8.2 and jQuery UI 1.8.13, which are outdated and pose security risks. The site includes common UI enhancements like Superfish menus and Fancybox for image display. Performance is moderate with basic mobile responsiveness and SEO meta tags present. Accessibility features are minimal but present. The site lacks modern frameworks or CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal, indicating potential technical debt. Hosting on Amazon S3 for static content is a positive aspect for reliability and scalability. Overall, modernization of the tech stack and security hardening are recommended to reduce technical risks.
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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