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Security report for irishferries.com

Irish Ferries · Transportation · Ireland

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, Email security and 1 other check.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Irish Ferries operates as a major ferry transportation service connecting Ireland with Britain, France, and other destinations. The website provides comprehensive travel information, booking capabilities, and customer support in multiple languages, targeting travelers and freight customers. The company appears well-established with a professional online presence and consistent branding. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and OneTrust for cookie compliance, with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and standard security headers, though there is room for improvement in CSP implementation and incident response transparency. The absence of WHOIS data reduces domain trust slightly but does not detract significantly from the overall legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security policies, publishing vulnerability disclosure information, and improving accessibility compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 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

3 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 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

  3. 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

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

Keep watching irishferries.com

This scan found 21 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

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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
67
Security headers
55
Email security
65
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
75

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

Irish Ferries holds a strong market position in the transportation sector, focusing on ferry services between Ireland, Britain, and France. The business model centers on passenger and freight ferry transport with online booking as a key revenue stream. The multilingual website supports a broad European audience. Integration with Google Tag Manager and OneTrust indicates a mature marketing and compliance approach. The company maintains trust signals such as privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms. No direct parent or subsidiary relationships were identified from the website content. The company targets both leisure travelers and commercial freight customers, leveraging digital channels for customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and standard security headers present. The use of cookie consent banners aligns with GDPR requirements. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. However, the lack of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates gaps in transparency and readiness. The missing WHOIS data is a concern for domain trust but may be due to privacy protection. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a transportation service website but could be improved by publishing explicit security and incident response information and enhancing CSP policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive Content Security Policy with reporting enabled.
  2. Create and publish a security policy and incident response page including contact channels.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures and improve transparency.
  4. Conduct an accessibility audit and improve compliance with WCAG standards.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Irish Ferries
Description
Irish Ferries offers affordable ferry crossings between Ireland, the UK, France, and other destinations. The website provides booking services, sailing updates, route information, and customer support.
Key services
Passenger ferry crossings, Freight transport, Online booking, Travel updates
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.5.1, Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent, New Relic Browser Monitoring
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), New Relic Browser Monitoring
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic Browser Monitoring, OneTrust Cookie Consent
Marketing tools
OneTrust
Transparency
good

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 challenge.
  2. Uses HTTPS with valid SSL certificate.
  3. Includes cookie consent banner compliant with GDPR.
  4. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page.
  5. WHOIS data is unavailable, indicating privacy or registry issues.
  6. Multiple language versions available, indicating international audience.
  7. Uses standard web technologies and analytics tools.
  8. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a standard technology stack with jQuery 3.5.1, Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing, and OneTrust for cookie consent management. The site is served over HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and includes performance optimizations such as preloading fonts and stylesheets. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. Accessibility features are basic but present. No CMS or hosting provider details were identified from the content. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in load times and script management. The technical infrastructure supports a professional and user-friendly experience but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security controls.
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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