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Security report for service.gov.uk

Government Digital Service · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 10 critical or high findings in Email security.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

GOV.UK is the official digital platform of the UK government, providing a centralized portal for accessing a wide range of government services and information. It serves UK residents, businesses, and citizens with services including benefits, tax, immigration, driving, and more. The platform is managed by the Government Digital Service and has a long-standing presence since 1996, reflecting its authoritative status. The website is designed with a focus on accessibility, mobile optimization, and user experience, ensuring ease of navigation and comprehensive content coverage. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including govuk-frontend framework, JavaScript libraries for performance measurement and analytics, and a custom CMS tailored for government publishing. The infrastructure appears robust with fast performance and strong SEO and accessibility features. Security is well-implemented with HTTPS, CSRF protections, and content security policies, although explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly detailed. The security posture is strong with no detected vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is evident through comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, including user consent mechanisms and GDPR adherence. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a controlled communication channel via contact forms, typical for government sites. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and alignment with government digital service standards. Strategically, the site could enhance transparency by publishing explicit security policies, incident response procedures, and vulnerability disclosure information. This would further strengthen user trust and security posture. The current analytics usage is moderate and privacy-conscious, with no advertising or affiliate marketing detected, aligning with public sector norms.

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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

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Keep watching service.gov.uk

This scan found 25 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.

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
95
Security headers
70
Email security
0
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
70

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention service.gov.uk, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
732,147
Employees
2
Customers
731,530
Third parties
615
Weak passwords
6%

Latest record dated 2026-05-27 · 619 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for service.gov.uk.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –check-mot.service.gov.uk2026-05-27
  • –www.check-mot.service.gov.uk2026-03-27

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

GOV.UK holds a dominant market position as the primary digital gateway for UK government services, serving millions of users seeking official information and transactional services. Its business model is public sector service delivery, funded and operated by the UK government through the Government Digital Service. The platform's competitive advantage lies in its authoritative content, comprehensive service coverage, and user-centric design. Revenue streams are not applicable as it is a government service. Target customers include UK citizens, residents, businesses, and public bodies requiring access to government information and services. Growth indicators include continuous content updates, integration of new services, and adoption of modern web technologies. The partnership ecosystem is primarily internal government departments and agencies, with no commercial partners evident. Operationally, the platform emphasizes security, privacy, and accessibility, reflecting government mandates and public trust requirements.

Security posture

The security maturity of GOV.UK is high, with strong HTTPS enforcement, security headers, and secure form handling practices. The presence of CSRF tokens and anti-spam honeypot fields in forms indicates attention to common web security threats. No vulnerable libraries or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the site lacks publicly available detailed security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, which are best practices for transparency and rapid incident handling. Compliance with GDPR is supported by clear privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms. The absence of direct security contact emails or security.txt files limits external reporting channels. Overall, the security culture appears mature but could benefit from enhanced transparency and formalized incident response disclosures to align with leading standards such as ISO 27001 or NIST frameworks.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security controls and practices.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact channels, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  4. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and analytics for security and privacy compliance.
  5. Enhance transparency on data retention policies and user data handling to strengthen privacy trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Government Digital Service
Description
GOV.UK is the UK government's digital service platform providing access to government services and information including benefits, business, childcare, citizenship, justice, driving, education, environment, housing, tax, passports, visas, working and pensions.
Key services
Benefits information and applications, Business and self-employed guidance, Childcare and parenting support, Citizenship and immigration services, Driving and transport services, Education and learning resources, Government news and transparency, Job search and employment services, Tax and National Insurance management
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Lux (performance measurement), GA4 (Google Analytics 4), Gem components (govuk_publishing_components), HTML5, CSS3
Frameworks
govuk-frontend
Platforms
Nominet (domain registrar)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS with valid certificates
  • CSRF tokens present in forms
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in/out
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure form handling with anti-spam honeypot field

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics 4
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official UK government website with comprehensive government services and information
  2. Strong privacy and cookie policies with user consent mechanisms
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed; contact via forms
  4. High quality, accessible, and mobile-optimized design
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations
  6. No detected security vulnerabilities or suspicious external links
  7. No advertising or affiliate marketing present
  8. WHOIS data confirms domain legitimacy and long-term registration
Technical notes

Notes

The GOV.UK website is built on a modern, custom government CMS with govuk-frontend framework and JavaScript libraries for performance and analytics. The site is well-structured with valid HTML and CSS, optimized for fast loading and mobile responsiveness. Accessibility features are robust, supporting diverse user needs. The use of nonce-based Content Security Policy enhances script security. Hosting details are not explicit but likely government-managed infrastructure ensures reliability and compliance. The technical stack supports scalability and maintainability, with opportunities to further modernize by adopting emerging web standards and enhancing security transparency.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 71/100Medium33 findingsView report
  2. 71/100Medium35 findingsView report
  3. 71/100Medium33 findingsView report
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