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Security report for noc.ac.uk

National Oceanography Centre · Education · United Kingdom

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

Security score

83/100

Risk levelLow

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

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a UK-based independent charitable company focused on advancing oceanographic research, technology development, and education. Established in 1996, it holds a leading position in marine science, managing significant national assets such as research ships and autonomous marine vehicles. The website reflects a mature, well-funded research institution with a clear mission to empower and inspire ocean stewardship. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web technologies, offering good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, though some security headers and policies could be enhanced. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations.

Scanned

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

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

Keep watching noc.ac.uk

This scan found 15 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

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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
95
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
83

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

NOC operates primarily in the education and research sector, serving academic, governmental, and public audiences interested in marine science. Its business model is non-profit, funded by UK Research and Innovation and charitable donations. The organization maintains partnerships with academic institutions and marine data centers, enhancing its research capabilities and outreach. The website supports this ecosystem with extensive resources, publications, and educational content. The presence of certifications like Investors in People and Fundraising Regulator membership further solidifies its credibility. The site’s navigation and content structure support diverse user groups including researchers, students, and the general public.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration, uses cookie consent banners compliant with GDPR, and avoids exposing sensitive data in its HTML content. No obvious vulnerabilities or outdated libraries were detected. However, explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not present on the site, representing areas for improvement. The absence of visible security headers in the HTML does not preclude their presence at the server level but should be verified. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced with formalized policies and disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Ensure all web forms include anti-CSRF tokens and robust input validation to prevent injection attacks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
National Oceanography Centre
Registration number
11444362
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Oceanography Centre
Description
The National Oceanography Centre is an independent self-governing organisation – a charitable company limited by guarantee. NOC is funded by UK Research and Innovation to work on National Capability programmes and manages on its behalf the National Marine Equipment Pool (Europe’s largest fleet of autonomous and robotic vehicles) and two state of the art research ships RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook.
Key services
Oceanographic research, Marine technology development, Educational resources and postgraduate studies, Facilities and equipment provision for marine research, Public engagement and scientific publications
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, jQuery, Bootstrap, FontAwesome, LazySizes (lazy loading images), Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

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

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is rich and relevant to oceanographic research and education.
  3. Strong presence of trust indicators including charity registration and certifications.
  4. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy policy mechanisms implemented.
  5. No signs of security blocking or WAF challenges.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Drupal 10).
  7. Multiple external links to reputable partner organizations and academic institutions.
  8. No exposed sensitive data or obvious security vulnerabilities in the HTML content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging jQuery, Bootstrap, and FontAwesome for UI components and styling. Lazy loading of images is implemented via LazySizes, improving performance. Google Analytics is used for visitor tracking with appropriate consent mechanisms. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with a clear navigation structure. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by rich media content such as videos and images. No hosting provider information is explicitly detected. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting the organization's digital presence effectively.
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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