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Security report for ncsc.gov.uk

National Cyber Security Centre · Government · United Kingdom

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

Security score

84/100

Risk levelLow

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

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is the UK government's authoritative cybersecurity agency, providing comprehensive guidance, incident response support, and certification services such as Cyber Essentials. The website positions the NCSC as a trusted national authority, targeting a broad audience including individuals, families, businesses of all sizes, public sector entities, and cybersecurity professionals. The content is rich, well-structured, and professionally presented, reflecting a mature digital presence. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies including React and JavaScript, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site is served over HTTPS with no detected security vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security headers and a security.txt file are not present, representing areas for improvement. From a security posture perspective, the NCSC website demonstrates strong practices including cookie consent mechanisms and no visible vulnerabilities. The absence of direct contact emails for security or incident response is noted, though incident reporting is facilitated via dedicated portals. The domain is a .gov.uk domain, indicating official government ownership and high legitimacy despite missing WHOIS raw data. Overall, the website is highly trustworthy, professionally maintained, and compliant with privacy regulations such as GDPR. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing explicit security policies, and adding security contact information to further strengthen trust and security posture.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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.

    • 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

  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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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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
82
Security headers
80
Email security
98
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
84

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 NCSC holds a dominant position as the UK's national cybersecurity authority, operating under the government sector. Its business model is focused on providing authoritative cybersecurity guidance, incident response coordination, certification schemes, and educational resources. The target market spans individuals, SMEs, large organizations, public sector bodies, and cybersecurity professionals. The NCSC benefits from strong partnerships with UK intelligence and security agencies such as GCHQ, MI5, and SIS, reinforcing its credibility and operational reach. The website's content strategy emphasizes education, awareness, and practical support, positioning the NCSC as a central hub for cybersecurity in the UK. Growth indicators include active engagement through events like CYBERUK and a broad portfolio of services. The organization maintains a consistent and professional brand image aligned with government standards.

Security posture

The NCSC website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no exposed sensitive information. The presence of cookie consent mechanisms and comprehensive privacy policies indicate strong compliance with data protection regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and a security.txt file suggests room for enhancement in defense-in-depth strategies. The site does not publicly expose direct security contact emails, relying instead on incident reporting portals, which may limit immediate communication channels. No vulnerable libraries or scripts were detected, and no signs of malware or phishing were found. Overall, the security maturity is high, appropriate for a government cybersecurity entity, but could be improved by adopting additional security best practices and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to enhance browser security.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
  3. Add dedicated security contact emails on the website to improve incident response communication.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance documentation of security policies and incident response procedures publicly to build further trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Cyber Security Centre
Description
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides cyber security guidance and support helping to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.
Key services
Cyber security guidance, Incident response support, Cyber Essentials certification, Assured services, Education and skills development
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, JavaScript, CSS, WebManifest
Frameworks
React
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official UK government cybersecurity center website
  2. Comprehensive cybersecurity guidance and resources
  3. Strong branding and consistent design
  4. No signs of blocking or WAF interference
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected
  6. Robust privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  7. Active social media presence on multiple platforms
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed, contact via forms and incident reporting portals
  9. WHOIS data unavailable but domain is .gov.uk indicating high legitimacy
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using React, leveraging modern JavaScript and CSS technologies, with assets optimized for performance including font preloading and deferred script loading. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, canonical URLs, and structured data using JSON-LD for organization and search actions. Hosting details are not explicitly disclosed, but the site is served over HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate. No CMS was detected, suggesting a custom or government-managed platform. Performance is moderate with good loading practices but could benefit from further optimization. Overall, the technical infrastructure is robust and aligns with best practices for a government digital service.
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. 84/100Low19 findingsView report
  2. 84/100Low21 findingsView report
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