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Security report for scottishbusinesscentre.com

Scottish Business Centre · Real Estate · United Kingdom

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in Network security, SSL/TLS and 2 other checks.

Security score

42/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Scottish Business Centre is a specialized business transfer agency operating in Scotland, focusing on the sale and valuation of hotels, guest houses, and pubs. The company targets business buyers and sellers within the hospitality and real estate sectors, offering valuation and advisory services to facilitate business transfers. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand image, supporting the company's market position as an experienced niche player since 2017. Technically, the site is built on WordPress using Elementor and Yoast SEO, with integrations for Google Analytics and Tag Manager, indicating a moderate level of digital maturity. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and no obvious vulnerabilities, though some security headers are missing and should be added to enhance protection. The absence of WHOIS registration data is a notable concern, potentially indicating privacy protection or recent domain registration, which slightly impacts trustworthiness. Overall, the site is well-designed, user-friendly, and compliant with privacy norms, but domain legitimacy verification is recommended.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

9 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching scottishbusinesscentre.com

This scan found 26 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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
35
Average
42

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 · found on this site
  • 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 company operates in a well-defined market niche, providing essential services for business transfers in Scotland's hospitality sector. Its competitive advantage lies in decades of experience and a focused service offering. Revenue streams likely include commissions from business sales and valuation fees. The target customers are business owners looking to sell and buyers seeking hospitality businesses. The website's integration with social media and marketing tools suggests active engagement with potential clients. Growth indicators include a comprehensive resource section and active content updates. The partnership ecosystem is not explicitly detailed, but social media links indicate some level of outreach. Strategic observations highlight the importance of verifying domain registration to reinforce credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and secure form handling. However, the lack of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. There is no visible incident response or security policy information, which could be improved to enhance trust and compliance. GDPR compliance appears addressed via privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a small business website but could benefit from implementing additional headers and formal security documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options HTTP headers to improve security.
  2. Verify and update WHOIS domain registration information to ensure transparency and trust.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan accessible to users.
  4. Regularly audit and update WordPress core and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and conduct periodic SEO audits to maintain digital presence.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Scottish Business Centre
Description
Scottish Business Centre is an independent business transfer agency specialising in hotels, guest houses and pubs for sale throughout Scotland.
Key services
Business valuation, Business sales agency, Advisory services for buying and selling businesses
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, Yoast SEO, jQuery, Slider Revolution, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Elementor
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with AJAX

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Marketing tools
Yoast SEO
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 focused on business transfer services in Scotland, specializing in hospitality sector.
  3. Website uses modern WordPress CMS with Elementor and Yoast SEO plugins.
  4. Good presence of SEO metadata and structured data for organization and webpage.
  5. Contact information is clearly presented including phone number and contact form.
  6. Social media presence includes Twitter, YouTube, Instagram.
  7. No explicit privacy or security policy pages found in main HTML but likely exist on site.
  8. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  9. WHOIS data missing, which is a concern for domain legitimacy verification.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress platform using Elementor for page building and Yoast SEO for search optimization. It uses common JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking. The site loads a video background and uses Slider Revolution for interactive content. Performance is moderate, with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility. The technical stack is standard for small to medium business websites, with opportunities to improve security headers and accessibility compliance. Hosting provider details are not evident from the HTML content.
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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