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Security report for newhopetoungardens.co.uk

New Hopetoun Gardens · Retail · United Kingdom

High risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Network security and 2 other checks.

Security score

47/100

Risk levelHigh

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

New Hopetoun Gardens is an established, employee-owned garden centre located near Edinburgh, UK, with over 40 years of history. The business offers a wide range of garden plants, gifts, a tearoom, and hosts events such as the Art in the Garden. The website reflects a strong local retail presence with a focus on gardening enthusiasts and the local community. The company emphasizes quality, customer service, and sustainability, evidenced by its Living Wage Employer certification. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the GeneratePress theme, incorporating modern web technologies such as jQuery, Google reCAPTCHA for form security, and Facebook Pixel for marketing analytics. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, providing a good user experience with clear navigation and rich content. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and implements Google reCAPTCHA on its contact forms, along with a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. However, it lacks some recommended security headers which could enhance protection. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website presents a trustworthy and professional digital presence for a small retail business. The absence of WHOIS data due to domain naming rules is a limitation but does not detract significantly from the site's legitimacy given the strong business and trust signals present.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 100 · Low
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. 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

  2. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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 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';…

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

Keep watching newhopetoungardens.co.uk

This scan found 29 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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
80
Average
47

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

New Hopetoun Gardens operates in the retail sector, specializing in garden supplies, gifts, and hospitality through its tearoom. Its employee-owned business model suggests a strong internal culture and community focus. The company targets gardening enthusiasts and local visitors, leveraging events and a well-stocked gift shop to diversify revenue streams. The website's integration with social media platforms and use of marketing tools like Facebook Pixel indicate active engagement with customers and digital marketing efforts. The Living Wage Employer certification enhances its brand reputation and appeal to socially conscious consumers. The business appears stable with a clear market position as a leading garden centre near Edinburgh.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security posture. HTTPS is enforced, and Google reCAPTCHA protects form submissions against automated abuse. The cookie consent banner provides GDPR-compliant user consent management. However, the absence of several security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options represents an area for improvement. No signs of malware, phishing, or exposed credentials were found. The site should maintain regular updates of WordPress core and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement additional HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy to strengthen browser security.
  2. Maintain up-to-date WordPress core, themes, and plugins to reduce vulnerability exposure.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible to users to enhance trust and preparedness.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance monitoring and logging to detect and respond to potential security incidents promptly.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
New Hopetoun Gardens
Description
Award-winning Garden Centre in Edinburgh. Plants, gifts & great reputation for choice and quality. More than just a Garden Centre. 10am-5pm (last entry 4.30pm)
Key services
Garden plants and supplies, Gift shop, Orangery tearoom, Showcase gardens and events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, GeneratePress theme, jQuery, Google reCAPTCHA, Facebook Pixel
Frameworks
WordPress CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA on contact form
  • Cookie consent banner with granular controls

Analytics and tracking

Services
Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
Cookie Consent Plugin, Google reCAPTCHA
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected.
  2. Strong branding and consistent business information.
  3. Good privacy and cookie compliance with user consent mechanisms.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (WordPress, GeneratePress).
  5. Security posture is good but could be improved with additional headers.
  6. WHOIS data is unavailable due to domain naming rules error, limiting domain registration verification.
  7. Multiple customer testimonials and social media presence enhance trust.
  8. Contact information is clearly presented with multiple channels.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using the GeneratePress theme, which is known for performance and flexibility. It uses jQuery and integrates Google reCAPTCHA for form security and Facebook Pixel for marketing analytics. The site is mobile responsive and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. Performance is moderate, with optimized CSS and lazy loading of images. The site uses a cookie consent plugin with granular controls, indicating attention to privacy compliance. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and user-friendly experience but could benefit from enhanced security headers and ongoing performance tuning.
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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