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Security report for kaplanapprenticeships.co.uk

Kaplan Financial Limited · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Kaplan Financial Limited operates a professional apprenticeship vacancy platform targeting UK job seekers and apprentices. The website provides a searchable database of apprenticeship opportunities across various industries, primarily education and accountancy. The platform is well-branded and consistent with Kaplan's corporate identity, offering a user-friendly interface with modern web technologies such as AngularJS and Bootstrap. The site integrates tracking and analytics tools like Google Analytics and Blueshift to monitor user engagement. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling, though explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms are absent. WHOIS data is unavailable due to domain naming rules, but the domain is active and legitimate based on content and branding. Overall, the site is a credible resource for apprenticeship seekers with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security hardening.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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 kaplanapprenticeships.co.uk

This scan found 25 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
72
Security headers
40
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
65

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention kaplanapprenticeships.co.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
25
Employees
0
Customers
25
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
4%

2 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for kaplanapprenticeships.co.uk.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Kaplan Financial Limited positions itself as a key player in the UK apprenticeship market, leveraging partnerships with major employers to offer diverse apprenticeship roles. The business model focuses on connecting candidates with employers through an online platform, generating value via education services and placement facilitation. The company targets young adults and career changers seeking vocational training. The website's integration with partner domains like getmyfirstjob.co.uk and kaplan.co.uk indicates a collaborative ecosystem. The platform's medium size and established presence suggest stable operations with potential for growth. Absence of direct contact details on the site may indicate a centralized support model or reliance on parent company channels.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enabled and secure form submissions. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options represents a missed opportunity to enhance protection against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency. Tracking scripts are present without a cookie consent banner, which may pose GDPR compliance risks. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, suitable for the site's function but improvable to meet higher standards.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and mobile optimization for broader user inclusivity.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Kaplan Financial Limited
Registration number
1028790
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Kaplan Financial Limited
Description
Kaplan works with major industry names to create apprenticeship opportunities for career starters or changers. The site allows searching and applying for apprenticeship vacancies.
Key services
Apprenticeship vacancy listings, Career advice, Application platform
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
AngularJS 1.5, jQuery, Bootstrap 4.6, DNN (DotNetNuke) CMS, ASP.NET WebForms
Frameworks
AngularJS, Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure form submission (POST with viewstate)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Blueshift
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Blueshift
Marketing tools
Blueshift
Transparency
basic

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 challenges.
  2. Content is focused on apprenticeship vacancies and career advice.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the page.
  4. Privacy policy is linked externally on kaplan.co.uk domain.
  5. No cookie consent banner detected despite use of tracking scripts.
  6. Site uses modern frontend frameworks and a CMS (DNN).
  7. No explicit security headers detected in provided data.
  8. WHOIS data unavailable due to domain naming rules error.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a mature CMS platform (DNN) with a frontend leveraging AngularJS 1.5 and Bootstrap 4.6, indicating a hybrid modern and legacy technology stack. The use of ASP.NET WebForms suggests some legacy backend components. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of CDNs for fonts and libraries. Mobile optimization is good, with responsive design elements evident. SEO is supported by meta tags and structured navigation. However, the site could benefit from modernization of frontend frameworks and improved accessibility compliance. The integration of multiple external domains for analytics and autocomplete services is well-managed but requires privacy considerations.
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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