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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

71/100

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 accounts, passports, and legal guidance. The platform is managed by the Government Digital Service and is a critical component of the UK public sector's digital transformation efforts. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including JavaScript modules, govuk-frontend framework, and performance measurement tools like Lux. It is optimized for accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and SEO, ensuring a high-quality user experience. The site uses Google Analytics 4 for user behavior tracking, integrated with cookie consent mechanisms to comply with privacy regulations. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs secure form practices including spam protection. However, explicit security headers and a published security policy or incident response contacts are not evident. The domain WHOIS data confirms the site's legitimacy as a long-standing UK government domain, enhancing trust. Overall, GOV.UK demonstrates a mature digital presence with strong content quality, technical implementation, and business credibility. Strategic improvements could include publishing detailed security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms to further enhance security posture and transparency.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of service.gov.uk. View the latest report

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 24 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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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
70
Email security
0
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
71

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 UK government's official digital service portal, serving millions of users seeking government-related information and services. Its business model is public sector service delivery, focusing on accessibility and comprehensive coverage of government functions. The platform's competitive advantage lies in its official status, extensive service offerings, and consistent branding. Revenue streams are not applicable as it is government-funded. The target audience includes UK citizens, residents, businesses, and public bodies. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and feature enhancements. The partnership ecosystem is primarily internal within UK government departments, with no external commercial partners detected. Operationally, the platform emphasizes user-centric design, accessibility, and compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks.

Security posture

The security posture of GOV.UK is solid with enforced HTTPS, secure form handling, and cookie consent mechanisms. The absence of exposed sensitive data and use of spam protection techniques indicate good security hygiene. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy suggests room for improvement. No dedicated security policy or incident response contact information is published, which could hinder vulnerability reporting and incident management. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy and cookie policies. The site does not expose vulnerable libraries or known security flaws in the visible content. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by formalizing security governance and disclosure practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Implement and explicitly declare security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  4. Create and host a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure.
  5. Continue enhancing transparency around data collection, retention, and user privacy controls.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Government Digital Service
Description
GOV.UK is the UK government's official website providing access to government services and information, including benefits, passports, taxes, and more.
Key services
Benefits information, Business and self-employed guidance, Childcare and parenting, Citizenship and living in the UK, Crime, justice and the law, Driving and transport, Education and learning, Employing people, Environment and countryside, Housing and local services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

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

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with acceptance/rejection options
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with spam protection (honeypot field)
  • Use of modern JS modules and async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics 4
Marketing tools
GA4 analytics
Transparency
excellent

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 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. Modern, accessible, and well-structured website design
  5. Use of Google Analytics 4 for user behavior tracking with consent
  6. No visible security policy or incident response contact details
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page found
  8. WHOIS data confirms domain legitimacy and long-term registration
Technical notes

Notes

The GOV.UK website is built on a custom government digital service platform utilizing the govuk-frontend framework and modern JavaScript modules. It incorporates performance measurement tools such as Lux and integrates Google Analytics 4 for analytics. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, adhering to government digital standards. The HTML structure is valid and semantic, supporting SEO best practices. The use of SVG graphics and asynchronous script loading contributes to fast performance. No CMS or third-party hosting provider is explicitly identified, indicating a bespoke hosting environment likely managed by government IT infrastructure. Technical risks are minimal, with no visible deprecated or vulnerable libraries. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and formalize security governance documentation.
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. 70/100 −1Medium34 findingsView report
  2. 71/100Medium33 findingsView report
  3. 71/100Medium35 findingsView report
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