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Security report for nonnativespecies.org

GB Non-native Species Secretariat · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The GB Non-native Species Secretariat (NNSS) website serves as an official government resource coordinating efforts to manage invasive non-native species across Great Britain. It provides comprehensive information, alerts, and resources targeted at the general public, environmental stakeholders, and government agencies. The site is well-branded with official government logos and offers structured navigation to various informational sections including legislation, biosecurity, and local action groups. Technically, the website employs a modern technology stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, and Google Analytics, hosted behind Cloudflare for performance and security. The site is mobile-optimized and includes a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR standards. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not explicitly detected. No direct contact emails or phone numbers are provided, relying instead on a contact form. No terms of service or security policies are published, and no vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is available. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and serves its governmental informational purpose effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

8 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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Cloudflare

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching nonnativespecies.org

This scan found 24 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

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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
52
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
45
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
62

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

NNSS operates as a government-affiliated non-profit entity focused on environmental protection and invasive species management. Its market position is authoritative within the UK environmental governance sector. The business model centers on coordination, information dissemination, and public engagement rather than commercial revenue. The target audience includes government bodies, environmental groups, and the general public interested in biosecurity and conservation. The website's partnership ecosystem includes UK government agencies as evidenced by displayed logos. Growth indicators are stable given the domain's long registration since 2006. The site does not engage in commercial activities or affiliate marketing, focusing on public service and awareness.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with enforced HTTPS and use of Cloudflare for DNS and CDN services. However, the absence of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent areas for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. The cookie consent mechanism is implemented with categorized cookies, supporting GDPR compliance. Incident response and security policy information are absent, which could hinder transparency and preparedness. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and publishing security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen domain name system security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Consider providing direct contact information such as official emails or phone numbers to improve user trust and support.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
GB Non-native Species Secretariat
Description
The GB Non-native Species Secretariat (NNSS) coordinates the approach to invasive non-native species in Great Britain, supporting governments and agencies of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Key services
Information portal on non-native species, Species alerts, Recording sightings, Awareness raising materials, Legislation guidance, Biosecurity resources, Local Action Groups coordination
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.6.3, Bootstrap 5.0.2, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, DataTables 1.12.1
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with categories
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for controlled script loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenge.
  2. Content is well-structured and relevant to non-native species management in Great Britain.
  3. Use of official government logos enhances trust.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented with clear categories.
  5. No explicit privacy policy page found but cookie policy is present and GDPR compliant.
  6. No terms of service or security policy pages detected.
  7. Contact information is limited to a contact form; no direct emails or phone numbers found.
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  9. No social media links or email addresses explicitly provided.
  10. Technical stack is modern and includes popular libraries and analytics tools.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and widely supported technology stack including jQuery 3.6.3, Bootstrap 5.0.2, and DataTables for enhanced UI components. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are used for tracking and analytics, indicating a mature approach to data collection and marketing insights. Hosting is managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and DNS services, which enhances performance and security. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and basic accessibility features. SEO optimization is basic but present with meta tags and structured navigation. No explicit CMS was detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements possible through optimization of scripts and assets.
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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