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Security report for imeche.org

Institution of Mechanical Engineers · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is a large, well-established professional engineering institution based in the United Kingdom, serving over 110,000 members globally. The organization focuses on advancing mechanical engineering through membership services, professional registration, training, events, and policy advocacy. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content tailored to engineers, students, and industry professionals. Technically, the site uses a modern CMS (Telerik Sitefinity), integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools, and implements GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers could be explicitly implemented. WHOIS data is unavailable due to privacy protection, which is justified for this type of institution. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 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

4 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 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 imeche.org

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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
52
Security headers
30
Email security
93
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
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

IMechE holds a strong market position as a leading professional engineering institution with a global membership base. Its business model centers on membership fees, professional development courses, events, and certification services. The organization targets engineering professionals and students, offering a broad range of services including End-Point Assessment recognized by Ofqual. The website's linkage to an official merchandise partner and extensive event calendar indicates diversified revenue streams and active community engagement. The institution's registered charity status and global network enhance its credibility and influence in the engineering sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms aligned with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, explicit implementation of security headers like X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy is not evident and could be improved. The absence of publicly available incident response or vulnerability disclosure information suggests an area for enhancement. Overall, the site balances user privacy and security effectively but could benefit from formalizing incident response contacts and security disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against clickjacking and content injection.
  2. Update legacy JavaScript libraries like jQuery to the latest stable versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish a security.txt file and provide clear incident response contact information to improve transparency and facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and trackers to ensure compliance with privacy policies and minimize security risks.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and conduct periodic security assessments to maintain high standards in user experience and security.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Description
Improving the world through engineering, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is one of the fastest growing professional engineering organisations in the world.
Key services
Membership and professional registration, Training and qualifications, Events and challenges, Policy and press advice, End-Point Assessment service
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.12.0, Bootstrap 5.3.3, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (gtag.js), CivicUK Cookie Control, Telerik Sitefinity CMS, Dot Digital Tracking, UserWay accessibility widget, Google Maps API
Frameworks
Telerik Sitefinity CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with TCF compliance
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security_storage granted in consent
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Dot Digital
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (gtag.js), Dot Digital Tracking, TrackedWeb
Marketing tools
Dot Digital
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and professional design
  2. Strong compliance with GDPR and cookie consent frameworks
  3. Use of multiple modern tracking and analytics tools with user consent
  4. No visible security or privacy policy pages explicitly mentioning incident response or DPO contacts
  5. WHOIS data unavailable due to malformed request, but website legitimacy is high based on content and branding
  6. No suspicious or malicious domains linked
  7. No adult or questionable content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Telerik Sitefinity CMS version 12.2, leveraging jQuery 1.12.0 and Bootstrap 5.3.3 for frontend functionality and responsiveness. It integrates Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Dot Digital tracking, and a cookie consent solution from CivicUK, indicating a sophisticated marketing and analytics infrastructure. The site loads asynchronously many scripts to optimize performance, though the use of an older jQuery version may introduce technical debt. Accessibility is supported via UserWay widget and semantic HTML. The site is mobile optimized and SEO-friendly with proper meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting details are not explicitly found, but the use of Azure CDN for resources suggests cloud hosting. Overall, the technical stack is modern but could benefit from updating legacy libraries and enhancing security headers.
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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