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Security report for leeds.ac.uk

University of Leeds · Education · United Kingdom

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The University of Leeds is a large, well-established higher education institution in the United Kingdom, recognized as part of the prestigious Russell Group and ranked among the world's top 100 universities. The website serves a broad audience including prospective and current students, staff, researchers, and alumni, offering comprehensive information on undergraduate, masters, and research degree programs, as well as scholarships and events. The content is professionally presented with consistent branding and clear navigation, reflecting a high level of digital maturity. Technically, the website is built on the Jadu CMS platform, utilizing modern web technologies such as Typekit fonts and Modernizr for enhanced user experience and accessibility. Hosting appears to be on cloud infrastructure, likely AWS, with content delivered via a dedicated CDN. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility features, alongside solid SEO practices. From a security perspective, the site implements several important HTTP security headers and uses secure cookie flags. However, a critical vulnerability is the absence of a valid SSL/TLS certificate and the lack of HTTPS protocol support, which severely impacts the security posture. No explicit security or incident response policies are publicly available, and advanced TLS features like OCSP stapling and session resumption are not implemented. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms in place. Overall, while the University of Leeds website excels in content quality, user experience, and privacy compliance, it faces significant security risks due to missing SSL/TLS configuration. Addressing these security gaps is essential to protect user data and maintain trust. Strategic improvements in security infrastructure and transparency around incident response would enhance the site's resilience and credibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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';…

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
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  • 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
0
Security headers
65
Email security
50
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
48

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

The University of Leeds holds a strong market position as a leading UK university with a global reputation. Its business model centers on delivering higher education and research services, supported by a diverse portfolio of academic programs and student services. The institution targets a wide demographic including domestic and international students, academic staff, and alumni. The website reflects a mature digital presence with integrated marketing tools such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Pardot, indicating active engagement in student recruitment and communication. The university's partnership ecosystem includes official social media channels and cloud hosting providers, supporting its operational and outreach capabilities. Growth indicators include scholarship offerings and virtual open days, demonstrating adaptability and responsiveness to market demands.

Security posture

The current security posture of the University of Leeds website is moderate but compromised by critical issues. The presence of security headers like HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, and X-Content-Type-Options indicates awareness of web security best practices. Secure cookie flags are set appropriately. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS support expose users to potential interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. The site does not support modern TLS protocols, OCSP stapling, or session resumption, limiting secure communication efficiency. No public security or incident response policies were found, which may hinder timely handling of security incidents. Privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, reflecting good data protection practices. Overall, the site requires urgent remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhanced transparency in security governance.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and enforce modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated protocols.
  3. Enhance HSTS policy by including subdomains and submitting for preload to improve security.
  4. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to optimize TLS performance and security.
  5. Publish clear security and incident response policies, including dedicated contact channels for reporting issues.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by the Jadu CMS platform, leveraging modern web technologies such as Typekit for fonts and Modernizr for feature detection. Content is served via a CDN (production2.leeds.ac.uk), likely hosted on AWS infrastructure based on IP addresses. The site includes a course search form with radio buttons and search input, indicating interactive user data collection. Performance metrics were not available, but the site appears well-structured with good accessibility and SEO metadata. The absence of valid SSL/TLS and modern protocol support is a significant technical debt. The site uses multiple TXT DNS records for domain verification and marketing tools integration. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires urgent security upgrades to meet modern standards.
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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