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Security report for merton.gov.uk

Merton Council · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Merton Council operates as the official local government authority for the London Borough of Merton, providing a broad spectrum of public services ranging from housing and social care to planning and community engagement. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for residents and businesses to access council services, information, and updates. The digital presence is supported by a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform tailored for local government use, ensuring a structured and accessible user experience. Technical infrastructure includes integration with Google Tag Manager and social media platforms to enhance engagement and analytics capabilities. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, though there is room for improvement in publishing explicit security policies and incident response contacts. Overall, the website demonstrates a mature digital footprint consistent with a large public sector entity, balancing usability, compliance, and trustworthiness.

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

3 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

  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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Keep watching merton.gov.uk

This scan found 11 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
0
Security headers
80
Email security
98
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
69

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 website positions Merton Council as a key local government service provider with a focus on community services, regulatory functions, and resident support. Its business model is public sector driven, funded by government allocations and local taxes. The council targets residents, local businesses, and community groups within the borough. The presence of multiple service categories and active social media channels indicates a strategy to maintain transparency and accessibility. The use of LocalGov Drupal CMS and integration with standard web technologies reflects a commitment to maintain modern digital standards. No direct revenue streams or commercial partnerships are evident, consistent with its governmental role.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and cookie consent banners, indicating baseline security and privacy compliance. However, no explicit security policy or incident response contact information is published, which are best practices for transparency and user trust. No security headers were detected in the provided data, suggesting potential improvements in HTTP header configurations. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and AddToAny requires ongoing monitoring to mitigate supply chain risks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified in the HTML content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could benefit from enhanced policy disclosures and technical hardening.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page including incident response contacts to improve transparency and trust.
  2. Implement and verify security HTTP headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate supply chain risks.
  5. Enhance monitoring and logging capabilities to improve incident detection and response.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Merton Council
Description
Merton Council is a local government authority providing a wide range of public services including council tax, housing, social care, education, planning, and community support to residents and businesses in the London Borough of Merton.
Key services
Benefits, Council Tax and housing, Births, marriages and deaths, Business and consumers, Communities and neighbourhoods, Council and democracy, Education and learning, Healthy living, Leisure, libraries and culture, Planning, buildings and environment, Rubbish and recycling
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, LocalGov Drupal, Google Tag Manager, AddToAny sharing, jQuery UI
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by canonical and shortlink URLs)
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML content

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official local government portal for Merton Council
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with clear navigation
  3. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented with opt-in mechanism
  4. No visible security policy or incident response contact information
  5. Social media presence is active and linked
  6. No suspicious or malicious content detected
  7. Use of modern CMS and technologies appropriate for government websites
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 using the LocalGov Drupal distribution, a specialized CMS for UK local authorities. It leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and AddToAny for social sharing. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. Performance is moderate with multiple CSS and JS assets loaded, some from external CDNs. No critical technical debt or deprecated libraries were detected. Opportunities exist to optimize loading times and implement advanced security headers. The technical stack aligns well with public sector digital standards, supporting maintainability and scalability.
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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