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Security report for northeast-ca.gov.uk

North East Combined Authority · Government · United Kingdom

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

81/100

Risk levelLow

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

The North East Combined Authority (NECA) is a regional governmental body serving the North East England area, focusing on regional governance, economic development, and transport infrastructure. The website serves as an official portal for residents and stakeholders, providing information and resources related to the authority's activities. The site is positioned as a key regional government entity with a medium organizational size and a focus on public sector services. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Vue.js, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar for analytics, and OneTrust for cookie consent management. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although some technical details such as hosting provider and CMS are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, with a professional design and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms, but lacks visible security headers and published security policies or vulnerability disclosures. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The WHOIS data is unavailable due to .gov.uk domain privacy policies, but the domain's legitimacy is supported by its official government TLD and consistent branding. Overall, the website presents a trustworthy and professional digital presence for a government authority, with recommendations to enhance security posture by adding security headers, publishing security policies, and improving privacy policy visibility to strengthen compliance and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 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

2 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

  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 northeast-ca.gov.uk

This scan found 16 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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  • 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
77
Security headers
65
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
81

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

NECA operates as a regional government authority with a clear mandate in governance, economic development, and transport planning for North East England. Its market position is that of an essential public sector entity, serving residents, businesses, and local stakeholders. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery and regional development. The website supports this by providing official information and links to social media channels for engagement. The organization leverages digital tools for analytics and user experience but maintains a conservative approach to data collection and privacy. The partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms but no explicit commercial partners or subsidiaries are identified. Growth indicators are not directly visible but the digital presence suggests ongoing engagement with the community and stakeholders.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent implemented, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement in defense-in-depth strategies. No security or incident response policies are published, and no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files are present, limiting transparency for security researchers. The use of third-party analytics and tracking tools like Hotjar and Google Tag Manager introduces moderate tracking but is managed via consent. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, suitable for a government informational site but requiring enhancements to meet higher security standards and compliance frameworks.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish a clear privacy policy page detailing data collection, processing, and user rights to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  3. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting and improve security posture.
  4. Conduct regular security audits and update third-party libraries to mitigate risks from vulnerable dependencies.
  5. Enhance transparency around data retention policies and incident response procedures to align with best practices in public sector security.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
North East Combined Authority
Key services
Regional governance, Economic development, Transport and infrastructure planning
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Vue.js, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, OneTrust Cookie Consent
Frameworks
Vue.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by .gov.uk and external scripts)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official regional government authority site for North East England
  2. Content is professional and relevant to public sector audience
  3. Good use of modern web technologies and consent management
  4. No WHOIS data available due to .gov.uk domain privacy policies
  5. No explicit privacy policy page found but cookie consent is implemented
  6. No visible contact forms on homepage; contact info limited to email and address in structured data
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  8. No explicit security headers detected in provided data
  9. Social media presence is strong with multiple official accounts linked
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using a modern JavaScript framework (Vue.js) combined with jQuery and enhanced by Google Tag Manager and Hotjar for analytics and user behavior tracking. Cookie consent is managed by OneTrust, indicating compliance efforts. The site loads multiple external scripts asynchronously to optimize performance. The design is responsive and accessible, with good SEO metadata including Open Graph tags and JSON-LD structured data for organization and webpage. However, the hosting provider and CMS are not explicitly identified, and no server security headers were detected in the provided data. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement in loading speed and security hardening. The technical stack is appropriate for a government website aiming for usability and compliance but could benefit from additional security and performance optimizations.
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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