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Security report for stowcare.co.uk

Stowcare · Healthcare · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, DNS health and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Stowcare is a UK-based residential care home provider specializing in elderly care services including dementia, respite, and palliative care. The website is professionally designed using Squarespace, featuring clear service descriptions and a user-friendly interface optimized for mobile devices. The technical infrastructure leverages modern web technologies and enforces HTTPS, ensuring secure communication. However, the absence of privacy and cookie policies, lack of explicit contact emails and phone numbers, and missing security headers indicate areas for improvement in compliance and security posture. The WHOIS data is incomplete due to domain registration issues, which slightly impacts trustworthiness but does not detract from the site's professional presentation. Overall, the site presents a moderate risk profile with good business credibility but requires enhancements in privacy compliance and security best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: mail.stowcare.co.uk

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

    • 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 stowcare.co.uk

This scan found 28 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
54
Security headers
50
Email security
65
DNS health
55
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
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 company operates in the healthcare sector, focusing on residential and care housing services for elderly residents in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Its business model centers on providing personalized care tailored to individual needs, emphasizing quality of life and independence. The website targets elderly individuals and their families seeking trusted care solutions. The company maintains a local market position with a small business size and leverages social media (Facebook) for outreach. The absence of detailed business registration information and contact details online suggests opportunities to enhance transparency and customer trust.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms, indicating basic security measures. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. The incomplete WHOIS data and missing privacy and cookie policies highlight compliance gaps, particularly regarding GDPR. Incident response and security policy information are absent, limiting readiness assessment. Overall, the security posture is moderate but can be significantly improved by implementing recommended headers, policies, and clearer contact channels for security concerns.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent banner to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Provide explicit company contact emails and phone numbers on the website to improve business credibility and user trust.
  4. Clarify domain registration details or consider domain registration review to resolve WHOIS inconsistencies.
  5. Establish and publish a security policy and incident response contact information to demonstrate security maturity and readiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stowcare
Description
Residential Care Homes in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Offering traditional Residential Care along with Care Housing for those wanting more independence. Experts in Dementia Care, Respite Care, Palliative Care and Well Being tailored to elderly residents. Provides a home from home living experience.
Key services
Residential Care, Care Housing, Dementia Care, Respite Care, Palliative Care, Well Being services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Squarespace, Google reCAPTCHA, Google Fonts
Platforms
Squarespace CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for forms

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google reCAPTCHA
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed Squarespace site for a residential care provider in the UK.
  2. No WHOIS data available due to domain registration error for www subdomain.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  4. Contact information is limited to a contact page with a form; no explicit emails or phone numbers found in the HTML.
  5. Social media presence limited to Facebook links.
  6. No security headers detected in the provided data; HTTPS is enabled.
  7. No advertising or analytics scripts detected beyond Google reCAPTCHA.
  8. Content is safe and appropriate for general audiences.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Squarespace platform, utilizing modern web technologies such as Google Fonts and Google reCAPTCHA. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good SEO metadata including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data. Performance is moderate with no major issues detected. Accessibility features are basic but present. The absence of advanced analytics or marketing tools reduces tracking footprint but also limits marketing insights. The technical stack is stable and suitable for the business needs but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and privacy compliance features.
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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