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Security report for liverpool.ac.uk

University of Liverpool · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The University of Liverpool is a prestigious higher education institution based in the United Kingdom, with a rich history dating back to 1881. It offers a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development courses, supported by world-class research and global partnerships including campuses in China and India. The university holds a strong market position, ranked within the top 150 globally and recognized for teaching excellence. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies such as Google Tag Manager, LiveChat, and responsive design, built on the TERMINALFOUR CMS platform. The site is well-optimized for mobile and accessibility, with comprehensive privacy and cookie policies indicating good GDPR compliance. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling, though explicit security headers and incident response information are not publicly detailed. Overall, the domain appears legitimate and trustworthy despite the absence of WHOIS data, supported by consistent branding and multiple trust indicators.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • 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 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 Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching liverpool.ac.uk

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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
77
Security headers
30
Email security
98
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
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

The University of Liverpool operates as a large educational entity within the UK higher education sector, targeting prospective and current students, academic staff, and research collaborators globally. Its business model centers on delivering academic programs, research initiatives, and international partnerships. The university's competitive advantages include its Russell Group membership, high global rankings, and extensive global footprint. Revenue streams likely include tuition fees, research grants, and partnerships. The institution demonstrates growth through new campuses and expanding global collaborations. The website reflects a mature digital presence with clear navigation and rich content supporting recruitment and engagement. Strategic observations highlight a strong emphasis on research impact, student experience, and global engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS usage and secure form implementations. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options is a minor gap. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure information are not publicly available, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from publishing dedicated security policies and implementing additional HTTP security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information on the website to improve transparency and user trust.
  3. Consider establishing and publicizing a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Ensure WHOIS data is complete and publicly available to improve domain trustworthiness and transparency.
  5. Maintain and regularly update privacy and cookie policies to stay compliant with evolving data protection regulations.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
University of Liverpool
Description
The University of Liverpool is a dynamic institution of academic excellence and innovation located in Liverpool, UK. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing education, and professional development courses, and is a founding member of the Russell Group. The university is known for world-class research, global partnerships, and a vibrant student life.
Key services
Undergraduate education, Postgraduate taught and research courses, Continuing professional development, Research and innovation, International partnerships, Student support and campus life
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, LiveChat, HTMX, WebP images, Responsive CSS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with hidden anti-bot fields
  • Cookie consent mechanism present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads
Tracking pixels
Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Marketing tools
LiveChat
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 navigation.
  2. Strong branding consistent with a major UK university.
  3. Comprehensive academic and student resources available.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and responsive design.
  5. Privacy and cookie policies are present and comprehensive.
  6. No security policy or incident response information publicly found.
  7. WHOIS data is missing, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious.
  8. Multiple social media and global partnership links present.
  9. No adult or questionable content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the TERMINALFOUR CMS platform and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and LiveChat for customer engagement. It uses responsive design techniques and WebP images for performance optimization. The site loads asynchronously loaded scripts and preconnects to key external domains to improve performance. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are implemented, contributing to a good user experience. The technical infrastructure appears robust with no visible technical debt or deprecated technologies. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified from the content. Performance is moderate with room for optimization in script loading and caching strategies.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 75/100Medium23 findingsView report
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