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Security report for mgts.co.uk

Midland Group Training Services Limited · Education · United Kingdom

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

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Midland Group Training Services Limited (MGTS) is a well-established UK-based educational charity specializing in engineering apprenticeships and training services. With over 50 years of experience, MGTS partners with a broad range of companies from SMEs to global operators across manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, food & drink, and logistics sectors. The organization offers apprenticeship placements, training courses, and skills analysis aimed at developing engineering talent. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence with strong trust indicators including Ofsted certification and testimonials from major clients such as PepsiCo and Warburtons. Technically, the website is built on WordPress 7.0 with modern SEO and analytics tools such as Yoast SEO and Google Analytics. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and performs moderately well. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no exposed sensitive data, though security headers are not explicitly detected and no cookie consent mechanism is present, which are areas for improvement. The WHOIS lookup failed due to querying the 'www' subdomain which is invalid for .uk domains, but the website content and business registration details confirm legitimacy and a long operational history. Overall, MGTS demonstrates a mature digital presence with a strong focus on education and workforce development in engineering. Strategically, MGTS should enhance privacy compliance by implementing cookie consent and improve security by adding recommended HTTP security headers. These steps will strengthen user trust and regulatory compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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 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 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 mgts.co.uk

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

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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
57
Security headers
20
Email security
75
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

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

MGTS holds a strong market position as a specialist training provider in engineering apprenticeships, leveraging long-term partnerships with notable industry players. Their non-profit business model focuses on educational services, targeting apprentices, employers, and learners in the engineering sector. Revenue streams likely include apprenticeship funding and training fees. The company shows growth potential through new course offerings such as the BTEC Higher National Diploma. The partnership ecosystem includes government apprenticeship portals and learning management platforms. MGTS's strategic advantage lies in its established reputation, comprehensive service offerings, and alignment with industry needs for skilled engineers.

Security posture

The website exhibits a good security baseline with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, which could hinder transparency and preparedness. GDPR compliance is partially demonstrated through privacy policies but lacks cookie consent mechanisms. No vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files were found. Overall, the security posture is adequate for the business type but could be enhanced by adopting recommended HTTP headers, formalizing incident response contacts, and improving privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to enhance browser security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and inform users about tracking.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Conduct regular security audits to identify and remediate any vulnerable libraries or plugins.
  5. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data retention policies and user data rights on the website.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Midland Group Training Services Limited
Registration number
984899
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Midland Group Training Services Limited
Description
MGTS is an educational charity specialising in engineering apprenticeships, training and assessment provision with over 50 years’ experience. They partner with a wide range of companies from SMEs to global operators in industries including manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, food & drink and logistics.
Key services
Engineering Apprenticeships, Apprentice Placements, Training Courses, Skills Analysis
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 7.0, Yoast SEO plugin, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, YouTube Embed Plus plugin, Snazzy Maps
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of reCAPTCHA on forms (indicated in footer)

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Marketing tools
Yoast SEO
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is relevant and targeted to apprentices and employers in engineering.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No visible security headers detected in HTML source.
  5. No cookie consent mechanism detected despite GDPR relevance.
  6. WHOIS data query was performed on 'www.mgts.co.uk' which is invalid; base domain likely 'mgts.co.uk'.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress 7.0, utilizing popular plugins such as Yoast SEO for search optimization and YouTube Embed Plus for media integration. Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are used for visitor tracking and analytics. The site uses Snazzy Maps for customized map styling. Performance is moderate with minified CSS and JS assets cached. The site is mobile responsive and accessible with skip links and ARIA labels. However, no hosting provider information is directly discernible. The technical stack is modern but could benefit from enhanced security headers and privacy features to reduce technical debt and improve compliance.
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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