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Security report for societyworks.org

SocietyWorks Ltd · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

SocietyWorks Ltd is a UK-based social enterprise wholly owned by the charity mySociety, specializing in citizen-centred digital solutions for local government and the public sector. Their offerings include FixMyStreet Pro, WasteWorks, ApplyWorks, FOIWorks, and service discovery programs, serving over 35 councils and public bodies across the UK. The company emphasizes open source technology, social value, and accessibility in its service design. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern frameworks like Bootstrap and uses privacy-respecting analytics (Plausible). The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and professionally designed, reflecting a mature digital presence. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and secure hosting, though explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms are absent, representing areas for improvement. WHOIS data is unavailable due to privacy protection, but the domain and website content align with the claimed business identity, supporting legitimacy. Overall, SocietyWorks presents a trustworthy, professional, and socially responsible digital service provider for the public sector.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching societyworks.org

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
85
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
72

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

SocietyWorks operates in the government and non-profit sectors, leveraging its parent charity mySociety's reputation and open source technology to deliver digital transformation solutions to local authorities. Their business model focuses on social enterprise principles, reinvesting profits to support civic technology development globally. The company targets UK councils and public sector organizations, offering integrated services that improve citizen engagement and operational efficiency. Their partnership ecosystem includes mySociety and platforms like FixMyStreet. The presence of numerous client logos and case studies indicates a solid market position with growth potential. The lack of direct phone contact suggests a digital-first customer engagement approach. Strategic observations include the importance of maintaining open source innovation and expanding service discovery offerings to deepen client relationships.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS enabled and secure hosting practices. No sensitive data leakage or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of common security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces the overall security posture. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy, which could impact trust and readiness in case of security events. Cookie consent mechanisms are missing, potentially affecting GDPR compliance. The use of privacy-focused analytics (Plausible) is a positive indicator. Overall, the security maturity is solid but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers, formal policies, and consent management.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and configure security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Add a clear cookie consent banner or mechanism to ensure GDPR compliance and user transparency.
  3. Publish an incident response policy and vulnerability disclosure process to improve security readiness and stakeholder trust.
  4. Consider adding explicit contact information such as a phone number for enhanced customer support accessibility.
  5. Regularly review and update WHOIS information and consider publishing registrant transparency to improve domain trust.

Contact details published on the site

Legal name
SocietyWorks Ltd
Registration number
05798215
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
SocietyWorks Ltd
Description
SocietyWorks builds citizen-centred local authority solutions for local government and the public sector. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of mySociety, a not-for-profit group pioneering online civic technology.
Key services
FixMyStreet Pro (street, environment and highway fault reporting), WasteWorks (local authority waste services), ApplyWorks (licence applications and payments), FOIWorks (Freedom of Information requests), Service discovery (service design and transformation)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, WordPress, Google Fonts, Plausible Analytics
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure hosting mentioned
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
plausible.io
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and clear navigation.
  2. Strong focus on public sector digital solutions with social enterprise model.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No explicit phone numbers found; contact primarily via email and forms.
  5. No cookie consent banner detected, which may be a compliance gap.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to privacy protection or query failure.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with Bootstrap framework and uses jQuery for client-side scripting. It loads Google Fonts and integrates Plausible Analytics for privacy-conscious user tracking. The site is mobile responsive and well-optimized for accessibility and SEO, with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, with no major technical debt visible in the HTML. Hosting provider details are not explicitly disclosed. The site uses modern web standards and progressive enhancement techniques. Opportunities for modernization include adding security headers and improving cookie consent management. Technical risks are minimal but should be monitored with ongoing security best practices.
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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