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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, operated by the Government Digital Service. It serves as a centralized portal for a wide range of government services and information, targeting UK residents, businesses, and citizens. The website offers comprehensive content covering benefits, business, childcare, citizenship, justice, driving, education, environment, housing, tax, passports, visas, and employment. It holds a strong market position as the primary government digital service portal, with consistent branding and high trust indicators such as official domain usage and licensing.

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.

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

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.

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
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

The platform operates under a public sector digital service model, providing free access to government information and transactional services. It supports a broad audience including individuals, businesses, and public bodies. The website's extensive service offerings and integration with government departments position it as a critical infrastructure for public administration and citizen engagement. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a focus on digital self-service and contact forms for communication. The site demonstrates strong governance and compliance with privacy and accessibility standards.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and employs cookie consent mechanisms, spam protection on forms, and uses nonce attributes in scripts to mitigate injection risks. While explicit security headers are not visible in the provided data, the overall security posture is strong given the nature of the site and its government backing. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, publishing a dedicated security policy and incident response contacts would enhance transparency and readiness. The use of Google Analytics 4 is balanced with privacy compliance through cookie consent.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security practices and incident response procedures.
  2. Implement and publicly link a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Ensure comprehensive security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) are configured and documented.
  4. Consider providing direct security contact channels (e.g., security@gov.uk) for incident reporting.
  5. Maintain and regularly update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and technologies.
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 across multiple sectors including benefits, business, childcare, citizenship, justice, disabilities, driving, education, environment, housing, tax, passports, visas, and working.
Key services
Benefits information and applications, Business and self-employed guidance, Childcare and parenting resources, Citizenship and immigration services, Driving and transport services, Education and learning resources, Government news and transparency, Job search and employment support, Tax and National Insurance management
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript ES Modules, Lux (performance measurement), GA4 (Google Analytics 4), Gem components (govuk_publishing_components), SVG graphics
Frameworks
GOV.UK Frontend
Platforms
Government Digital Service platform
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by gov.uk domain and canonical URL)
  • Cookie consent banner with acceptance/rejection options
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with spam protection (honeypot field)
  • Use of nonce in inline scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics 4
Marketing tools
GA4
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 public service information
  2. Strong privacy and cookie consent mechanisms
  3. Accessible and mobile-optimized design
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed, but contact forms available
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy considerations
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including ES modules, GOV.UK frontend components, and performance measurement tools like Lux. It is hosted on a government platform with fast loading times and excellent mobile optimization. The site employs custom CMS applications for content publishing and rendering. Accessibility and SEO are well implemented, with proper meta tags, ARIA attributes, and structured navigation. The use of Google Analytics 4 is integrated with consent mechanisms. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust, scalable, and user-friendly government digital service.
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. 71/100Medium35 findingsView report
  3. 71/100Medium33 findingsView report
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