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Security report for qaa.ac.uk

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education · Education · United Kingdom

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is a UK-based independent charity and the expert quality body for tertiary education. It provides impartial regulatory and collaborative quality assurance and enhancement services across the UK and internationally. The organization is trusted by governments, funding bodies, and higher education providers, offering services such as membership, accreditation, training, and sector resources. The website reflects a mature, professional entity with a clear focus on education quality and standards. Technically, the website is built on the Sitefinity CMS platform, leveraging modern analytics tools including Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, and employs Google Tag Manager for marketing and tracking. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured with comprehensive navigation and content. Security certifications such as ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials are prominently displayed, indicating a strong commitment to information security. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place. However, explicit security headers and a public security policy or incident response contact are not found, representing areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is good, with clear privacy and cookie policies aligned with GDPR requirements. Overall, the website and organization present a low-risk profile with high trustworthiness. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy and incident response details, and implementing a vulnerability disclosure program to further strengthen security and transparency.

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

3 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 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 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

  3. 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

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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
72
Security headers
55
Email security
100
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
78

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

QAA holds a leading position in the UK higher education quality assurance sector, operating as a non-profit independent charity. Its business model focuses on providing regulatory oversight, membership services, accreditation, and consultancy to higher education providers and colleges. Revenue streams likely include membership fees, service charges for accreditation and reviews, and training programs. The target customer segments include UK and international higher education institutions, governments, and funding bodies. The organization benefits from a strong partnership ecosystem with related domains and regional sites. Growth indicators include ongoing publication of sector resources, international accreditation services, and active event hosting. The website's professional content and certifications reinforce its market credibility and operational maturity.

Security posture

The security maturity level of QAA's website is good, supported by HTTPS enforcement and recognized certifications such as ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials. The presence of cookie consent mechanisms and privacy policies indicates compliance with data protection regulations. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified. However, the absence of explicit security headers (e.g., Content-Security-Policy) and a publicly available security policy or incident response contact suggests room for improvement. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file, which could enhance incident response readiness and security culture. Overall, the security posture is strong but could benefit from increased transparency and additional technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a comprehensive security policy and provide clear incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program and consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly review and update privacy and cookie policies to maintain GDPR compliance and transparency.
  5. Enhance monitoring and auditing of third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
Registration number
03344784
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
Description
QAA is a world-leading quality agency providing impartial regulatory and collaborative quality assurance and enhancement for UK and international higher education. It is an independent charity trusted by governments and funding bodies, working in partnership with higher education providers and colleges to safeguard standards and improve quality.
Key services
Quality assurance and enhancement, Membership services, International accreditation, Training and bespoke services, Reviewing higher education, Publishing sector resources and reports
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, jQuery, Telerik Sitefinity CMS, FontAwesome
Frameworks
Sitefinity 15.3.8526.0
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • Use of security certifications (ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Microsoft Clarity
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 navigation.
  2. No WHOIS data available from provided raw output.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanism.
  4. Use of modern analytics and tracking tools with transparency.
  5. ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications displayed.
  6. No security.txt or explicit security policy found.
  7. No contact emails explicitly found in HTML; phone and postal address present.
  8. No forms detected that collect personal data on homepage.
  9. Multiple social media links present (LinkedIn, YouTube, Blue Sky, Podcasts).
  10. Mobile optimized and accessible with skip links and ARIA labels.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Sitefinity CMS platform version 15.3.8526.0, indicating a modern and supported content management system. It uses popular JavaScript libraries and frameworks including jQuery and FontAwesome for UI elements. Analytics and marketing tools include Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Microsoft Clarity, enabling detailed user behavior tracking and marketing optimization. The site is mobile responsive and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels, enhancing usability. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to improve page load times. There is no explicit hosting provider information detected. Technical risks are minimal, but the site could improve by adding security headers and publishing security policies to reduce potential attack surfaces.
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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