List of UK Building Societies that are secure by default

By Stephen Kellett
15 December, 2017

This is one of several posts of the topic of security of websites. Inspired by my initial post on the security of UK banks.

The reason for splitting this data into multiple posts is to make it more manageable. So that data on one institution is not mixed with data on another type of institution.

The following key is used for the secure status:

Yes The site is secure, loaded via https
Invalid The site loads via https, but the security certificate is invalid and thus the site is insecure.
Partial The site loads via https, but loads some parts of the page without https. The site is insecure.
No The site is loaded via http, not via https.
Fixed The site is loaded via https, but at the time of first writing it was loaded via http.
?? We could not find a website to evaluate.

We tested 45 building societies. We found 16 building societies that did not have a secure home page (not https or did have https with an invalid security certificate). That is 36% of UK building societies have security vulnerabilities.

Building Society Secure Home Page
Bath Investment & Building Society Yes https://www.bathbuildingsociety.co.uk/
Beverly Building Society No http://beverleybs.co.uk/
Britannia Savings No http://britannia.co.uk/
Buckinghamshire Building Society No http://www.bucksbs.co.uk/
Cambridge Building Society Yes https://www.cambridgebs.co.uk/
Chorley & District Building Society No http://www.chorleybs.co.uk/
Coventry Building Society Yes https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/
Cumberland Building Society Yes https://www.cumberland.co.uk/
Darlington Building Society Yes https://www.darlington.co.uk/
Dudley Building Society Yes https://www.dudleybuildingsociety.co.uk/
Earl Shilton Building Society No http://www.esbs.co.uk/
Ecology Building Society Yes https://www.ecology.co.uk/
Furness Building Society Yes https://www.furnessbs.co.uk/
Hanley Economic Building Society Yes http://www.thehanley.co.uk/
Harpenden Building Society Yes https://www.harpendenbs.co.uk/
Hinckley & Rugby Building Society Yes https://www.hrbs.co.uk/
Holmesdale Building Society Yes https://www.theholmesdale.co.uk/
Ipswich Building Society Yes https://www.ibs.co.uk/
Leeds Building Society No http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/
Leek United Building Society Yes https://www.leekunited.co.uk/
Loughborough Buildiong Society Yes https://www.theloughborough.co.uk/
Manchester Building Society Yes https://www.themanchester.co.uk/
Mansfield Building Society Yes https://mansfieldbs.co.uk/
Market Harborough Building Society No http://www.mhbs.co.uk/
Marsden Building Society Yes https://www.themarsden.co.uk/
Melton Mowbray Building Society Yes https://www.themelton.co.uk/
Monmouthshire Building Society Yes http://www.monbs.com/
National Counties Building Society No http://www.ncbs.co.uk/
Newbury Building Society Yes https://www.newbury.co.uk/
Newcastle Building Society Yes https://www.newcastle.co.uk/
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society Yes https://www.nandp.co.uk/
Nottingham Building Society Yes https://www.thenottingham.com/
Penrith Building Society Yes https://www.penrithbuildingsociety.co.uk/
Principality Building Society No http://www.principality.co.uk/
Progressive Building Society No http://theprogressive.com/
Scottish Building Society Yes https://www.scottishbs.co.uk/
Saffron Building Society Yes https://www.saffronbs.co.uk/
Skipton Building Society No http://www.skipton.co.uk/
Stafford Railway Building Society Yes https://srbs.co.uk/
Swansea Building Society No http://www.swansea-bs.co.uk/
Teachers Building Society Yes https://www.teachersbs.co.uk/
Tipton & Coseley Building Society Yes https://www.thetipton.co.uk/
West Bromwich Building Society No http://www.westbrom.co.uk/
Yorkshire Building Society Yes https://www.ybs.co.uk/index.html

Disclaimer

I shouldn’t need to point this out, but i will, all the same, just to be clear.

The data provided on this page should taken at face value. If you’re not sure about something, please verify it yourself. Nothing reported here should be regarded as a criticism or an endorsement or recommendation of an organisations security effectiveness. I am simply passing comment on whether the home page (whatever that may be) is provided as https on not. Other security concerns are a separate matter.

If your organisation is listed here and is not marked as secure, your best course of action is to fix that, not to complain that someone is reporting a fact anyone with a web browser can discover. The security status of your home page is public information, albeit information that many people don’t understand.

Guest posts

No, we’re not interested in having a guest post about finance related topics. These articles are about security, not finance.

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