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Security report for jwlees.co.uk

JW Lees Brewery & Pubs · Hospitality · United Kingdom

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

JW Lees Brewery & Pubs is a longstanding family-owned brewery and hospitality operator based in Manchester, UK, with a history dating back to 1828. The company manages a broad portfolio of pubs, inns, hotels, and a brewery producing award-winning beers. Their market position is strong regionally, serving customers across Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and North Wales. The website reflects a mature business with professional branding and comprehensive service offerings. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies including Next.js and React, with integration of Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site is mobile-optimized and provides a good user experience with clear navigation and rich content. However, some accessibility and privacy compliance aspects could be improved. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. The absence of security headers and explicit privacy and cookie policies are areas for enhancement. The WHOIS data for the queried domain is unavailable due to domain registration issues, which slightly impacts trustworthiness but does not detract from the business legitimacy as evidenced by the website content and social media presence. Overall, JW Lees presents a professional and credible online presence with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security best practices. Strategic recommendations include implementing comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, publishing security incident response information, and enhancing security headers to strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

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 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Domain Expires Soon

      Domain expires in 10 days

      What to do: Renew domain registration before expiration

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

Keep watching jwlees.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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
100
Security headers
70
Email security
65
DNS health
50
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
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

JW Lees operates as a family-owned brewery and hospitality group with a diverse portfolio including managed pubs, inns, hotels, and a microbrewery. Their competitive advantage lies in their heritage, regional footprint, and award-winning beer offerings. Revenue streams likely include beer sales, hospitality services, accommodation, and gift vouchers. The target customer segments are local consumers, families, and hospitality patrons in the North West UK region. Growth indicators include recent pub reopenings and new menu launches. The company maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with social media engagement and a dedicated gift voucher platform. Operationally, JW Lees balances traditional brewing with modern hospitality management, positioning itself as a leader in its sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and no apparent exposure of sensitive data. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options indicates room for improvement. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are published, which could hinder rapid response to security events. GDPR compliance is partially addressed but lacks visible privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms. The absence of a security.txt file and dedicated security contact channels suggests limited incident response readiness. Overall, the security culture appears functional but would benefit from formalized policies and enhanced technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance and consent mechanisms.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve protection against common web attacks.
  3. Publish a security incident response plan and vulnerability disclosure policy to enhance transparency and readiness.
  4. Conduct accessibility audits and improve compliance to ensure inclusivity and legal adherence.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
JW Lees Brewery & Pubs
Description
Manchester's oldest brewery. Award-winning beers & seasonal food. Pub, Restaurant, Inn & Hotel operator, Lancashire, Cheshire & North Wales.
Key services
Brewery operations, Managed pubs, Inn and hotel accommodations, Food and beverage services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (Next.js), Swiper.js, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

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. No privacy or cookie policy pages explicitly found in the scanned content
  3. WHOIS data is missing or invalid for the queried domain
  4. Strong social media presence with official company accounts
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response information found
  6. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file detected
  7. Contact information including phone, email, and physical address clearly presented
  8. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks
  9. No signs of malware or phishing detected
  10. Content is safe for general mature audiences with alcohol-related content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring Next.js and React, providing server-side rendering and improved performance. The use of Swiper.js enhances interactive content presentation. Google Tag Manager is integrated for analytics and marketing. The site appears to be hosted on a platform supporting modern web standards, though the exact hosting provider is not identified. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization. The site uses WordPress as a CMS backend, likely in a headless or hybrid configuration. Technical debt is minimal, but improvements in accessibility and security headers are recommended to modernize and future-proof the infrastructure.
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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