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Security report for stepchange.com

StepChange Consulting GmbH · Manufacturing · Austria

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

44/100

Risk levelHigh

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

StepChange Consulting GmbH is a specialized management consultancy based in Austria, focusing on the forestry, wood, pulp, paper, packaging, and tissue industries. The company offers a broad range of consulting services including strategy development, operational improvements, turnaround management, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain transformation, and digitalization. Their market position is that of an independent, industry-focused consultancy with a strong emphasis on delivering measurable business results through an experienced international team. Technically, the website is built on the Tilda CMS platform, utilizing nginx as the web server and jQuery for client-side scripting. The site is mobile optimized with good navigation and professional design. However, performance metrics are not available, and accessibility features are basic. From a security perspective, the website lacks HTTPS, which is a critical vulnerability. No SSL/TLS certificate is installed, and no modern security headers beyond X-Frame-Options are present. There is no evidence of privacy or cookie policies, nor incident response or security policies published. This exposes users to risks and reduces trustworthiness. Overall, the website presents a professional business front but suffers from significant security and privacy compliance gaps. Immediate attention to SSL/TLS implementation and privacy policy publication is recommended to improve security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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 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';…

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

Keep watching stepchange.com

This scan found 18 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

€25per month

  • 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
0
Security headers
30
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
44

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

StepChange Consulting operates in a niche market segment providing consulting services to the forestry and paper manufacturing industries. Their competitive advantage lies in deep industry expertise and a focused service portfolio that covers strategic and operational challenges. The business model is consultancy-driven, targeting top-tier clients in manufacturing sectors. Growth indicators include a diverse international team and biannual industry benchmarking publications. The company fosters a professional brand image with clear service offerings and team profiles. Partnerships or subsidiaries are not evident from the data. The company targets organizations seeking specialized consulting to improve competitiveness and operational efficiency.

Security posture

The current security maturity level of the website is low due to the absence of HTTPS and modern security controls. The lack of SSL/TLS exposes all data transmissions to interception and undermines user trust. Security headers are minimal, and no advanced protections such as HSTS or CSP are implemented. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, indicating limited preparedness for security incidents. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is not demonstrated due to missing privacy and cookie policies. The security culture appears immature from the website perspective, and urgent remediation is needed to protect both the business and its clients.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS and secure all communications.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to comply with GDPR and inform users.
  3. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Establish and publish an incident response policy and contact channels for security issues.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
StepChange Consulting GmbH
Technical notes

Notes

The website is hosted on nginx and uses the Tilda CMS platform, which provides a range of pre-built scripts and styles. The technology stack includes jQuery 1.10.2 and various Tilda JavaScript modules for animations, menus, and lazy loading. The site is mobile responsive with good navigation and professional design elements. However, performance data is missing, and the site lacks HTTPS, which is a critical technical deficiency. The DNS setup uses Variomedia nameservers and Microsoft Outlook for email protection with SPF configured. No DNSSEC or CAA records are present. The absence of SSL/TLS and modern TLS protocols is a significant technical risk that should be addressed promptly.
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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