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Security report for iabuk.com

IAB UK · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

IAB UK is a prominent industry body uniting over 300 members from the digital advertising ecosystem in the United Kingdom. The organization focuses on championing innovation, setting shared standards, and providing educational resources to build a sustainable future for digital advertising. Their services include policy engagement, research, events, training, and member networking. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and clear navigation tailored to industry professionals. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 11 with Commerce integration and leverages Cloudflare for hosting and CDN services. However, a critical security gap exists as the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not serve content over HTTPS, exposing users to potential risks. Privacy and cookie policies are present with consent mechanisms, indicating good compliance posture. Social media integration across major platforms enhances trust and engagement. Overall, the site demonstrates strong business credibility but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and maintain trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of iabuk.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 100 · High
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
    • 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

    • 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 iabuk.com

This scan found 20 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.

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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
85
Security headers
40
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
71

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

IAB UK operates as an essential media industry association in the UK, providing standards, research, and training to a broad membership base including publishers, agencies, brands, and ad tech companies. Their market position is strong as a leading voice in digital advertising, supported by initiatives like the Gold Standard certification. The business model relies on membership fees, events, and educational offerings. The organization targets digital advertising professionals seeking industry collaboration and best practices. Partnerships with technology providers and marketing platforms are evident through linked domains and integrations. Growth indicators include expanding membership and active policy engagement. The website content and structure support a professional and authoritative brand image.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, which is a critical vulnerability for any modern website, especially one handling member interactions and potentially sensitive data. While some security headers are implemented (X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options), the lack of TLS protocols, HSTS, and OCSP stapling further weaken the security stance. No evidence of incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies was found. Privacy compliance is good with visible policies and consent mechanisms, but the missing HTTPS undermines overall data protection. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS configuration is essential to mitigate risks and align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and install a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated versions.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload flags.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling to improve certificate revocation checking performance and security.
  5. Review and enhance security headers to include Content Security Policy (CSP) and Referrer-Policy.
  6. Establish and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact information.
  7. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update as needed.
  8. Maintain and clearly display privacy and cookie policies with robust consent management.
  9. Improve performance metrics and monitor load times to enhance user experience.
  10. Continue to expand trust indicators such as certifications and member testimonials.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 11 CMS with Commerce 3 module, indicating a modern and scalable platform. It uses jQuery and jQuery UI libraries, Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing tags, and Cloudflare as a CDN and proxy service. The site includes integrations like AddEvent for calendar functionality and Colorbox for UI elements. Despite a rich tech stack, the lack of SSL/TLS is a major technical deficiency. Performance data is unavailable, but the use of CDN and caching headers suggests moderate optimization. The site is mobile responsive and accessible with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured navigation. Technical debt appears low, but security misconfigurations pose operational 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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 71/100Medium27 findingsView report
  2. 71/100 +7Medium27 findingsView report
  3. 64/100 −6Medium28 findingsView report
  4. 70/100Medium28 findingsView report
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