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Security report for highways-news.com

Highways News · Transportation · United Kingdom

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

Highways News is a specialized media platform delivering the latest news, insights, and podcasts focused on the highways and transportation industry in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2020, it serves professionals and stakeholders in the sector by providing timely industry news, advertising opportunities, and multimedia content such as the Highways Voices podcast. The website is positioned as a niche industry news provider with a business model centered on advertising and sponsored content. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the Elementor page builder, hosted with Cloudflare DNS and registrar services. It employs modern web technologies including Google Analytics for visitor tracking and CookieYes for cookie consent management, ensuring GDPR compliance through detailed user consent mechanisms. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, SEO practices, and basic accessibility features. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration and uses domain transfer protection. However, it lacks DNSSEC and advanced security headers, and does not publish a security policy or incident response contacts. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is good with a cookie consent banner and opt-in/out controls, though a formal privacy policy page was not found in the provided content. Overall, the website presents a professional and trustworthy platform with a solid technical foundation and good privacy practices. Strategic improvements include enabling DNSSEC, adding security headers, publishing security and privacy policies, and expanding contact information to enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

2 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

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

Keep watching highways-news.com

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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
57
Security headers
85
Email security
55
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
76

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

Highways News operates as a small-sized, UK-based media company specializing in transportation and highways industry news. Its competitive advantage lies in its focused content, industry-specific podcasts, and advertising services tailored to the sector. Revenue streams likely include advertising, sponsored content, and event promotions. The target customers are industry professionals, government agencies, contractors, and suppliers in the highways and transportation sectors. The company maintains partnerships with industry players as evidenced by linked domains and advertising partners. Growth indicators include regular content updates and multimedia offerings. The business ecosystem is supported by digital marketing tools and social media engagement.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protection enabled. Cookie consent management is comprehensive, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security.txt files, as well as missing security headers, represent areas for improvement. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is published, which could hinder rapid response to security events. The use of reputable third-party services like Cloudflare and Google Analytics is positive but requires ongoing monitoring for vulnerabilities. Overall, the site is secure for its business purpose but would benefit from enhanced transparency and technical security controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve DNS security.
  2. Implement additional HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages accessible from the website footer.
  4. Create and publish a security policy and incident response contact information, including abuse@ or security@ email addresses.
  5. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Highways News
Description
Highways News is a media platform providing news, insights, podcasts, and advertising opportunities focused on the highways and transportation industry in the UK.
Key services
Industry news articles, Podcasts (Highways Voices), Advertising and sponsorship opportunities, Newsletter distribution
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, PHP, JavaScript, Google Analytics, CookieYes (cookie consent management), AdRotate (advertising management)
Frameworks
Elementor page builder
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced with Google Analytics configured for SSL
  • Cookie consent with opt-in/out and detailed categories
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited to prevent unauthorized transfers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
AdRotate
Marketing tools
CookieYes
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional niche news platform focused on highways and transportation.
  2. Content is well structured with clear navigation and categorized news.
  3. Cookie consent is implemented with detailed user preferences and compliance.
  4. No privacy policy or terms of service pages were found in the provided content.
  5. Contact information is limited to an email address; no phone or physical address found.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and WordPress CMS with Elementor builder.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  8. No explicit or adult content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using the Elementor page builder, which provides flexibility and ease of content management. It integrates Google Analytics for visitor tracking and CookieYes for cookie consent, indicating attention to privacy compliance. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, a reputable provider. Performance is moderate with some lazy loading of images and asynchronous script loading. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO meta tags including Open Graph and Twitter Cards are properly implemented. Accessibility is basic but present. Technical risks include reliance on third-party plugins and lack of advanced security headers, which should be addressed to reduce attack surface.
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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