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Security report for planetbids.com

PlanetBids · Government · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PlanetBids operates a specialized procurement and supplier management software platform primarily serving local governments, municipalities, utilities, public works, and educational institutions. The company positions itself as a trusted provider with over 1000 procurement professionals relying on its platform daily. Their SaaS offering includes modules for vendor management, bid management, document management, contract management, and compliance tools, aiming to modernize and streamline procurement lifecycles with AI-assisted workflows. Technically, the website is built on HubSpot CMS and hosted on AWS infrastructure, utilizing modern web technologies such as SVG animations and video content. However, the website suffers from critical security shortcomings, notably the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which severely impacts its security posture and user trust. Additionally, privacy compliance is weak, with no visible privacy or cookie policies and limited consent mechanisms. Overall, while the business model and content quality are solid and professional, the technical and security implementations require urgent improvements to meet industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 100 · High
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

7 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 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';…

  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 Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

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

Keep watching planetbids.com

This scan found 22 issues across 5 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
100
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
65

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

PlanetBids targets a niche market of public sector procurement professionals, offering a comprehensive suite of procurement tools tailored to government and educational agencies. Their competitive advantage lies in a centralized, AI-assisted platform that simplifies complex procurement processes and regulatory compliance. The company leverages a SaaS model with tiered offerings for agencies and vendors, supported by a strong ecosystem of case studies and testimonials that reinforce credibility. The website's content and branding are consistent and professional, indicating a mature marketing approach. However, the lack of explicit contact information and privacy policies may hinder trust and customer engagement. The company appears to be medium-sized with a focus on the U.S. public sector, but no founding year or parent company information is available. The DNS and hosting setup suggest reliance on AWS and HubSpot, indicating a modern cloud-based infrastructure.

Security posture

The security posture of the PlanetBids website is currently weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. No modern TLS protocols are enabled, and critical security headers are missing, which increases vulnerability to common web attacks. The site does not implement HSTS, OCSP stapling, or session resumption, further weakening SSL security. While no known vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or POODLE are detected, the lack of basic SSL/TLS configuration is a critical issue. Additionally, privacy compliance is poor, with no visible privacy or cookie policies and no GDPR compliance indicators. Incident response and security policy information are not found, indicating a lack of transparency in security governance. These gaps pose significant risks to user data protection and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Immediately obtain and install a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Configure the web server to support modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable insecure protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  5. Publish clear and comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with explicit consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  6. Provide visible and verified contact information including support and security incident contacts.
  7. Establish and disclose a formal security policy and incident response plan to enhance trust and transparency.
  8. Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate risks.
  9. Improve accessibility features and ensure compliance with WCAG standards for better user experience.
  10. Enhance analytics privacy compliance by limiting tracking and providing opt-out options.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on HubSpot CMS, leveraging AWS DNS hosting and modern front-end technologies including SVG animations and video elements. The site is mobile responsive with good navigation clarity and professional design. However, performance is slow with a load time of approximately 18.9 seconds and a large page size (~1.7MB) with 405 resources, indicating potential optimization opportunities. The absence of valid SSL/TLS and HTTPS is a major technical risk. SEO is supported with proper meta tags and Open Graph data, but accessibility is only basic. The tech stack includes Google Tag Manager and Hotjar for analytics and user behavior tracking. Overall, the infrastructure is modern but requires urgent security and performance optimizations to reduce technical debt and improve user trust.
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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