Skip to main content

Security report for mccanntesting.com

McCann Associates · Education · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

McCann Associates is a medium-sized company specializing in adaptive learning and assessment solutions primarily for the education sector, with additional focus on government, corporate, public safety, and professional certification markets. Their product portfolio includes adaptive placement testing platforms, writing improvement software, and data management tools. The company operates under the parent company Vantage Learning and maintains a consistent brand presence across its digital assets. Technically, the website is built on WordPress 4.6 with a mix of JavaScript libraries including jQuery and MooTools. It integrates Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for tracking and marketing purposes. The site is served over HTTPS, ensuring secure communication, but lacks visible security headers and advanced privacy mechanisms such as cookie consent banners or detailed privacy policies. From a security perspective, the site shows good baseline practices with HTTPS and secure form handling but could improve by implementing security headers and publishing clear privacy and cookie policies. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain raises concerns about domain registration legitimacy, which impacts overall trustworthiness. Overall, the website is functional and professional but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance, improved security headers, and clearer domain registration transparency to strengthen its security posture and business credibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

8 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 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 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 Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

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

Keep watching mccanntesting.com

This scan found 26 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
62

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

McCann Associates holds a solid position in the adaptive learning and assessment market, targeting educational institutions and related sectors. Their business model focuses on B2B software solutions with a diversified product suite addressing placement testing, writing improvement, and data analytics. The company benefits from its association with Vantage Learning and related subsidiaries, which broadens its market reach and service offerings. The website content and linked domains indicate a mature partnership ecosystem. However, the lack of explicit privacy and security policies and missing WHOIS data may affect customer trust and regulatory compliance. Growth opportunities exist in enhancing digital privacy, security transparency, and mobile optimization to better serve their target audience.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and secure form plugins in use. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security reduces its defense-in-depth capabilities. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates gaps in security governance and incident readiness. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations appears minimal due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security posture is functional but requires enhancements to meet best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear user consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen site security.
  3. Regularly update WordPress core and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities and maintain security hygiene.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and readiness.
  5. Consider adding a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure program to encourage responsible reporting and improve trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
McCann Associates
Description
McCann Associates provides adaptive learning and assessment solutions focused on education, government, corporate, public safety, and professional certification sectors. They offer products such as College Success™ Adaptive Placement Platform, CorrectEnglish® Writing Improvement Software, and data management tools like iSEEK Supercruncher™.
Key services
Adaptive Placement Testing, Writing Improvement Software, Data Management and Analytics, Professional Certification Solutions, Consulting and Support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 4.6, jQuery 1.12.4, MooTools 1.4.5, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Contact Form 7, WP PageNavi, WP Bannerize, HTML5 and Flash Video Player
Frameworks
WooFramework 3.7.03
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms (Contact Form 7)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Mautic Forms
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and fully functional with rich content.
  2. No WHOIS data available, indicating possible domain registration or privacy issues.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the homepage HTML.
  4. Contact information is primarily via contact form; no explicit emails or phone numbers found in the HTML.
  5. Website uses WordPress CMS with several plugins and JavaScript libraries.
  6. HTTPS is enabled with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager integrated.
  7. No security headers detected in the provided data; potential area for improvement.
  8. No visible social media links or email addresses in the HTML content.
  9. Branding is consistent with McCann Associates and related Vantage entities.
  10. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on an older version of WordPress (4.6) with several JavaScript libraries including jQuery 1.12.4 and MooTools. It uses plugins such as Contact Form 7 for forms, WP PageNavi for pagination, and WP Bannerize for banners. Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are integrated for analytics and marketing. The site loads CSS and JS assets from its own domain, indicating self-hosting or dedicated hosting. Performance is moderate with some legacy scripts. Mobile optimization and accessibility are basic but functional. The site would benefit from modernization of its tech stack, improved mobile responsiveness, and enhanced accessibility features to improve user experience and SEO.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with mccanntesting.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review mccanntesting.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.