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Security report for witherslackgroup.co.uk

Witherslack Group · Education · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS and Security headers.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Witherslack Group operates as a leading provider of specialist education for young people with special educational needs (SEND) in the United Kingdom. Their website clearly targets parents, educators, and stakeholders seeking SEND support and advice. The organization positions itself prominently in the specialist education sector, offering tailored schooling and support services. The website content is professionally presented, with a focus on accessibility and clear communication of their services. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including JavaScript, CSS, Google Fonts, and FontAwesome icons, alongside a cookie consent mechanism via Cookiebot, indicating compliance with privacy norms. However, the absence of visible privacy policies and terms of service pages limits full compliance assessment. Security posture appears moderate with no detected advanced security headers or configurations, and the SSL status is unknown from the provided data. The WHOIS lookup failed due to domain naming rules violation, which is unusual and raises questions about domain registration legitimacy, although the website content and branding suggest a legitimate educational entity. Overall, the website is accessible, safe, and professionally maintained but would benefit from enhanced transparency in privacy and security disclosures.

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

5 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 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';…

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Keep watching witherslackgroup.co.uk

This scan found 25 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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Recommended

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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
42
Security headers
15
Email security
80
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
63

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

Witherslack Group's market positioning as a specialist SEND education provider gives it a competitive advantage in a niche but critical sector. Their business model revolves around delivering tailored educational services and support to young people with special needs, likely funded through a combination of public and private sources. The website targets a specialized audience including families and educational professionals, emphasizing SEND advice and support. The lack of detailed business registration or VAT information on the site limits deeper financial or corporate structure insights. The external domains linked are primarily service providers for fonts, icons, and cookie consent, with no evident commercial partnerships or subsidiaries disclosed. The organization's digital presence is focused and consistent, supporting its brand as a specialist education provider.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with HTTPS implied but not explicitly confirmed in the data. The presence of Cookiebot indicates attention to privacy consent, but no privacy policy or terms of service pages were found, which is a compliance gap. No security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options were detected, which are recommended best practices. The WHOIS data is unavailable due to a domain naming rules error, which is a red flag for domain legitimacy and could indicate misconfiguration or an unusual domain registration approach. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, limiting the organization's transparency in security matters. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved by adding clear privacy policies, security headers, and incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service to enhance compliance and user trust.
  2. Configure and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to improve security posture.
  3. Ensure HTTPS is properly configured with strong SSL/TLS settings and enforce HTTPS site-wide.
  4. Add a security.txt file and clear incident response contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and incident management.
  5. Investigate and resolve the domain WHOIS naming rules issue to confirm domain legitimacy and improve trustworthiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Witherslack Group
Description
Witherslack Group is the leading provider of specialist education for young people with special educational needs. Also providing SEND advice and support.
Key services
special educational needs schools, SEND advice, SEND support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, FontAwesome, Google Fonts, Cookiebot, Curator.io
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Cookiebot
Marketing tools
Curator.io
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and not blocked by WAF or security challenges.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable due to domain naming rules error, limiting domain legitimacy verification.
  3. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented via Cookiebot, indicating privacy awareness.
  4. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in the provided content.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  6. Website uses modern fonts and icon libraries (Google Fonts, FontAwesome).
  7. External scripts include Cookiebot and Curator.io for consent and content curation.
  8. No visible security headers or advanced security configurations detected from provided data.
  9. Content is focused on specialist education for young people with special educational needs.
  10. No adult or explicit content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern front-end technology stack including JavaScript, CSS, Google Fonts, and FontAwesome icons, which supports a visually appealing and responsive design. Cookiebot is integrated for cookie consent management, reflecting privacy awareness. External resources are loaded from reputable CDNs and service providers. The website appears to have moderate performance and good mobile optimization based on the use of responsive fonts and deferred script loading. However, no CMS or backend platform was identified from the provided data. The absence of visible security headers and unknown hosting provider information suggest areas for technical improvement. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and transparency.
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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