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Security report for horne.co.uk

Horne Engineering · Manufacturing · United Kingdom

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and GDPR outside view.

Security score

80/100

Risk levelLow

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

Horne Engineering is a UK-based manufacturer specializing in thermostatic showers, taps, and valves, with a history dating back to 1909. The company focuses on delivering safe hot water solutions primarily for domestic and commercial applications, targeting engineers, plumbers, and building managers. Their product range includes thermostatic taps, showers, mixing valves, and related technical support services. The website reflects a mature digital presence with professional design, clear navigation, and relevant content tailored to their industry niche. Technically, the site employs common web technologies such as jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and Microsoft Application Insights for analytics and monitoring. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, though some security headers are not explicitly detected in the HTML source. The WHOIS lookup for the subdomain www.horne.co.uk failed due to domain naming rules, indicating the query was likely made on a subdomain rather than the registered domain horne.co.uk, limiting domain registration transparency. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional, with moderate technical sophistication and compliance with privacy regulations.

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

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

  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

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

Keep watching horne.co.uk

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

€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

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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
79
Security headers
90
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
80

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

Horne Engineering occupies a specialized manufacturing sector within the UK, focusing on water temperature control products. Their long-standing history and technical support offerings position them as a trusted supplier in their market. The business model centers on product manufacturing combined with advisory services, targeting professional installers and facility managers. The website's content and structure support their market positioning, emphasizing product reliability and safety. Analytics and tracking tools indicate a moderate level of digital marketing and user behavior analysis. Absence of explicit contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication via web forms. No visible partnerships or subsidiaries were identified from the website content. The company appears to maintain a focused and consistent brand identity with good content quality.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent implemented, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options in the HTML source is a potential area for improvement. The use of older versions of jQuery could expose the site to known vulnerabilities if not regularly updated. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are publicly available, which could limit transparency in security incident handling. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, suitable for the business type but with room for enhancement to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers including CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Update all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish a clear vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance contact information visibility by including verified company emails and phone numbers to improve trust and communication.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to proactively identify and remediate security risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Horne Engineering
Description
Delivering Safe hot Water since 1909. Our thermostatic taps, showers and mixing valves accurately control water temperatures in domestic hot water services at the point of use and in the plant room.
Key services
Thermostatic taps, Showers, Mixing valves, Technical support, Valve sizing tools
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, jQuery UI, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Typekit Fonts, Microsoft Application Insights
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No visible exposed sensitive data

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Application Insights
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Application Insights
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and fully functional with no blocking detected
  2. Content is professionally presented and relevant to manufacturing thermostatic water control products
  3. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML snippet; contact is via forms
  4. Cookie consent banner is implemented and GDPR compliant
  5. WHOIS data query was performed on www.horne.co.uk (subdomain) causing failure; domain horne.co.uk likely registered
  6. Use of multiple analytics and tracking tools including Google Analytics and Microsoft Application Insights
  7. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy
  8. No explicit privacy or security certifications displayed
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional web technology stack with jQuery and jQuery UI for UI interactions, Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking, and Microsoft Application Insights for telemetry. Fonts are served via Adobe Typekit. The site is hosted on www2.horne.co.uk, suggesting dedicated or managed hosting. Performance is moderate with some optimization possible. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility are basic to good, with room for improvement in accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and canonical links. No CMS was explicitly detected, indicating a custom or proprietary solution. The site includes a cookie consent mechanism consistent with GDPR requirements. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security configurations.
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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