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Security report for mod.uk

Ministry of Defence · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) website serves as the official digital presence for the UK government's defence department. It provides comprehensive information about the MOD's mission to protect the United Kingdom through strong armed forces and partnerships with allies. The site is well-structured, professionally designed, and offers extensive resources including policy papers, news, guidance, and contact information. It targets UK citizens, military personnel, journalists, and stakeholders interested in defence matters. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies consistent with the GOV.UK platform, including JavaScript modules, the GOV.UK Design System, and Google Analytics 4 for performance and user behavior tracking. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and performs well with fast loading times. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs standard security headers, and includes mechanisms such as cookie consent banners and secure forms. There are no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Incident response and vulnerability reporting channels are clearly provided, although a dedicated security policy page and security.txt file are absent. Overall, the MOD website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations. It effectively balances transparency, user experience, and security, making it a reliable source of official defence information.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of mod.uk. View the latest report

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

2 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

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

Keep watching mod.uk

This scan found 14 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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Recommended

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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
70
Email security
83
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
66

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention mod.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
45,573
Employees
15
Customers
44,731
Third parties
827
Weak passwords
7%

Latest record dated 2026-04-25 · 196 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for mod.uk.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –apply.army.mod.uk2026-04-25
  • –lynowbx001.learn.mod.uk2026-04-21
  • –my.mod.uk2026-01-12
  • –sts.defencegateway.mod.uk2026-01-10
  • –apply.army.mod.uk2026-01-10

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The MOD operates as a key government entity responsible for national defence, supported by 25 agencies and public bodies. Its market position is unique as the primary UK defence authority, with a business model centered on public service and national security. Revenue streams are government-funded, focusing on defence procurement, military operations, and veteran services. The target audience includes UK citizens, military personnel, government officials, and media. The website reflects strong partnerships within the defence sector and a broad ecosystem of related organizations. Growth indicators include strategic defence reviews and investment in innovation. The MOD's operations are transparent, with extensive public communications and policy documentation.

Security posture

The MOD website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and secure data handling practices. The presence of a cookie consent mechanism and privacy policies indicates compliance with GDPR. Incident response readiness is supported by clear vulnerability reporting contacts. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were detected. However, the absence of a dedicated security policy page and security.txt file suggests room for improvement in transparency and standardized vulnerability disclosure. Overall, the security culture appears strong, aligned with government standards.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page to enhance transparency and user trust.
  2. Implement a security.txt file to standardize vulnerability disclosure and improve incident response.
  3. Provide explicit contact details for the Data Protection Officer to strengthen GDPR compliance.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance visibility of incident response contacts on the main website to facilitate reporting.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministry of Defence
Description
We work for a secure and prosperous United Kingdom with global reach and influence. We will protect our people, territories, values and interests at home and overseas, through strong armed forces and in partnership with allies, to ensure our security, support our national interests and safeguard our prosperity. MOD is a ministerial department, supported by 25 agencies and public bodies.
Key services
Defence policy and strategy, Military operations and support, Veteran services, Procurement and contracts, Public communications and transparency
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript modules, govuk_publishing_components, Lux (performance measurement), GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
Frameworks
GOV.UK Design System, govuk-frontend
Platforms
GOV.UK platform
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with acceptance/rejection options
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with anti-spam honeypot
  • Use of CSP and other security headers (implied by gov.uk standards)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics 4
Marketing tools
GA4 event tracking
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official UK government Ministry of Defence website with comprehensive content and services
  2. Strong branding and consistent design aligned with GOV.UK standards
  3. Robust contact information including multiple emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses
  4. Active social media presence on major platforms with official accounts
  5. Good privacy and cookie policy implementation with user consent mechanisms
  6. No signs of blocking, WAF challenges, or content restrictions
  7. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations
  8. No visible security vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data
  9. Detailed organizational structure and leadership information provided
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the GOV.UK platform using the Whitehall CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript modules and the GOV.UK Design System for consistent UI/UX. Performance is optimized with asynchronous script loading and responsive design. Accessibility features are well-implemented, including skip links and ARIA attributes. SEO is enhanced through proper meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured JSON-LD markup. The technical infrastructure is robust, hosted by the UK Government Digital Service, ensuring reliability and security. Opportunities exist to further modernize by adopting security.txt and expanding security documentation.
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. 70/100Medium29 findingsView report
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