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Security report for scotland.gov.uk

The Scottish Government · Government · United Kingdom

Low risk. No critical or high findings.

Security score

91/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Scottish Government website serves as the official digital presence for the devolved government of Scotland, providing comprehensive information on policies, news, publications, consultations, and statistics. It targets residents, stakeholders, and the general public interested in Scottish governance and public services. The site is authoritative and well-positioned as a primary source of government information. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, and Plausible Analytics, with a strong emphasis on accessibility, mobile optimization, and SEO best practices. The site is well-structured with clear navigation and uses structured data to enhance search engine understanding. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security headers are not evident in the provided data. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The WHOIS data is privacy protected, which is typical and justified for government domains, and the domain is highly legitimate based on trust signals and domain usage. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, security, and compliance, making it a trustworthy and reliable source for its audience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

No critical or high findings. These medium findings are worth fixing next.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Medium

      Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

      Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

      What to do: Update privacy policy to explicitly address GDPR requirements and user rights

  2. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Medium

      No MTA-STS Policy

      MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

      What to do: Implement MTA-STS to prevent downgrade attacks

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • Medium

      DNSSEC Not Enabled

      DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

      What to do: Enable DNSSEC to prevent DNS spoofing attacks

      • CAPEC-142
      • RFC 4033
      • RFC 4035

Keep watching scotland.gov.uk

This scan found 11 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
100
Security headers
90
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
91

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

The Scottish Government operates as a public sector entity with a broad mandate covering economy, education, health, justice, environment, and more. Its business model is focused on public service delivery and policy implementation rather than commercial revenue generation. The website supports transparency and public engagement through publications, consultations, and news updates. The government maintains a strong partnership ecosystem evident from linked domains such as consultation and blog platforms. The site’s enterprise scale and authoritative position in the government sector underscore its strategic importance and operational maturity.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS usage and cookie consent mechanisms aligned with privacy regulations. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content Security Policy and HSTS suggests room for improvement. The lack of a dedicated security policy or vulnerability disclosure page limits transparency in incident response readiness. The WHOIS privacy protection is appropriate and does not raise suspicion. Overall, the site maintains good security hygiene but could enhance its defenses and communication regarding security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to strengthen browser security.
  2. Create and maintain a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices, incident response, and vulnerability disclosure procedures.
  3. Introduce a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
  4. Enhance incident response contact information on the website beyond WHOIS abuse contacts to improve stakeholder trust.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure they comply with privacy and security standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Scottish Government
Description
The devolved government for Scotland with responsibilities including economy, education, health, justice, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, consumer advocacy and advice, transport and taxation.
Key services
Policy information, Publications, News updates, Consultations, Statistics and research, Public engagement
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Plausible Analytics, SVG icons, Google Fonts (Roboto), Font Awesome
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by canonical and og:url https)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure external scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Plausible Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Scottish Government website with comprehensive content and services.
  2. Strong focus on accessibility and user experience.
  3. Robust cookie consent and privacy policy implementation.
  4. No signs of security blocking or WAF interference.
  5. WHOIS data is privacy protected but consistent with government domain norms.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations.
  7. Clear social media presence on major platforms.
  8. No exposed sensitive data or security vulnerabilities detected in HTML content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and well-maintained technology stack including JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, and Plausible Analytics for tracking. It leverages Google Fonts and Font Awesome for UI consistency and iconography. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with semantic HTML and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich media content and external dependencies. No CMS is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Hosting details are not disclosed. The site’s technical implementation supports a professional and user-friendly experience but could benefit from enhanced security headers and performance tuning.
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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