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Security report for wates.co.uk

Wates Group · Real Estate · United Kingdom

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Wates Group is a prominent family-owned UK construction, development, and property services company with a strong market position and a broad portfolio of services including land development, construction, engineering, and property maintenance. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content, clear branding, and multiple service offerings targeted at landowners, private and public sectors, and job seekers. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern SEO and analytics tools integrated, including HubSpot, Google Analytics, and FullStory, indicating a focus on marketing and user experience. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS usage and cookie consent mechanisms, but lacks visible advanced security headers or explicit incident response policies. WHOIS data for the exact subdomain queried is unavailable due to Nominet UK rules, but this does not detract from the legitimacy of the site as the main domain is well established. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-optimized for its business goals.

Scanned

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

3 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-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

  2. 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';…

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Keep watching wates.co.uk

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.

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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
49
Security headers
80
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
78

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 Wates Group operates in the real estate and construction sectors with a large employee base and significant turnover. Its business model focuses on sustainable development and community investment, supported by a diverse portfolio of subsidiaries and partnerships. The company targets multiple customer segments including public and private sectors, landowners, and job seekers. The website content and linked domains indicate a well-structured corporate ecosystem with dedicated career and subsidiary sites. The company leverages digital marketing and analytics extensively to support growth and engagement. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels via forms and social media.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and integrates cookie consent, indicating baseline security and privacy compliance. However, no explicit security headers were detected in the provided data, and there is no visible security or incident response policy published. The use of multiple third-party analytics and marketing scripts increases the attack surface and requires ongoing monitoring. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified in the HTML content. The security score is moderate, with recommendations to enhance HTTP security headers, improve accessibility, and publish clear security policies to strengthen trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish explicit security and incident response policies accessible from the website footer or about sections.
  3. Ensure all lazy-loaded images and media assets load correctly to avoid user experience degradation.
  4. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and integrations to mitigate supply chain risks.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet WCAG standards and improve usability for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Wates Group
Description
The Wates Group is one of the largest family-owned construction, development and property services companies in the UK.
Key services
Land Development, Construction, Engineering, Facilities Management, Fit Out and Refurbishment, Housing & Property Maintenance, Residential Partnerships, Sustainable Procurement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, HubSpot Forms, FullStory, Microsoft Clarity
Frameworks
Yoast SEO
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by canonical URLs)
  • Use of HubSpot and Google Tag Manager scripts with async loading
  • Cookie consent banner present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, HubSpot Analytics, FullStory, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
HubSpot, FullStory, Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
HubSpot
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed corporate site for Wates Group, a UK family-owned construction and property services company.
  2. Content is rich with detailed service offerings, projects, sectors, and corporate information.
  3. Multiple HubSpot forms and tracking scripts are used for marketing and analytics.
  4. Social media presence is strong with official accounts linked in footer.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in visible content; contact is primarily via forms and social media.
  6. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  7. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented.
  8. WHOIS data for the queried subdomain is unavailable due to Nominet rules; this is expected for 'www' subdomains.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with a Luna theme and uses Yoast SEO for search optimization. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, HubSpot forms, FullStory, and Microsoft Clarity, reflecting a mature digital marketing infrastructure. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses modern web fonts. Performance is moderate with some lazy loading errors noted in images, which should be addressed. No hosting provider details were identified from the HTML content. The site structure is clear with mega menus and well-organized content blocks, supporting good user navigation and SEO.
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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