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Security report for smallbusiness.co.uk

Small Business UK · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Small Business UK is a well-established UK-focused media and resource platform dedicated to providing advice, guides, and tools for small businesses and SMEs. The website is managed by Stubben Edge and offers a comprehensive range of content including business management, funding, marketing, insurance, and technology. The platform targets UK small business owners and entrepreneurs, positioning itself as a trusted source of practical business information and support. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager, reCAPTCHA, and various advertising and analytics integrations. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility standards. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and secure form handling. Privacy compliance is robust, featuring comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with active consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained, with clear business information and active social media presence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 100 · Medium
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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 384-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching smallbusiness.co.uk

This scan found 21 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
52
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
70
Average
60

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 website serves as a content and membership platform for UK small businesses, offering a wide array of services such as business advice, funding information, and business tools. It benefits from a strong partnership ecosystem including British Small Business Grants and British Small Business Awards. The business model relies on content monetization through advertising, memberships, and affiliate programs. The target audience is UK-based small business owners and SMEs, with content tailored to their needs. The company demonstrates consistent branding and high content quality, supporting its market position as a leading small business resource in the UK.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with an excellent SSL configuration and implements key security headers such as Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and Content-Security-Policy. Forms are protected with Google reCAPTCHA to prevent abuse. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The site uses modern security best practices and maintains a good security posture. However, no explicit public security policy or incident response contact information was found, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and incident response procedures.
  2. Provide explicit contact channels for security incidents (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email addresses).
  3. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance form validation and implement additional anti-abuse mechanisms beyond reCAPTCHA.
  5. Maintain ongoing monitoring and auditing to ensure compliance with evolving privacy and security standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Stubben Edge
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Small Business UK
Description
SmallBusiness.co.uk provides advice and guides to UK sole traders and SMEs. Our goal is to help small business owner-managers succeed.
Key services
Business advice articles, Guides and whitepapers, Memberships, Funding and finance information, Business tools and resources
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.5.2, jQuery 3.7.1, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA, Gravity Forms, Newspack Blocks, Bonhill Theme and Plugins, Google Fonts
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Security headers present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Ahrefs Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick, Taboola, Moat, Bombora, Roq.ad, AdMaxim, Index Exchange, Quantcast, Adform, Magnite, PubMatic, OpenX, Yieldlab, Roku Advertising, Smartology, Tradedoubler, TrustArc, Adacado, Sizmek
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Ahrefs Analytics, Taboola Pixel, Moat, Bombora
Marketing tools
Gravity Forms, Newspack Blocks, Bonhill Blocks
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Comprehensive content focused on UK small businesses and SMEs
  2. Strong presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent management
  3. Extensive use of third-party advertising and analytics services
  4. Professional and consistent branding and design
  5. No signs of WAF or content blocking
  6. Use of modern web technologies and WordPress CMS
  7. Clear navigation with well-structured menus and categories
  8. Multiple social media channels actively linked
  9. Contact information and physical address clearly provided
  10. Use of Google Tag Manager and reCAPTCHA for security and analytics
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.5.2 with a custom Bonhill theme and uses various plugins including Gravity Forms and Newspack Blocks. It integrates Google Tag Manager, Google Fonts, and multiple advertising networks. Hosting is via Amazon AWS S3 for media assets. The site demonstrates good mobile responsiveness, accessibility, and SEO optimization with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with some asynchronous script loading and prefetching of fonts and images. The technical infrastructure is modern and well-maintained, supporting a positive user experience and effective content delivery.
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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