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CyberBadger Labs · Research

Waterloo Ontario Business Website Security

650 sites scanned · Waterloo Ontario · August 2026 · passive, public data only · 2 scans tracked

We ran a passive, read-only security scan of 650 Waterloo Ontario business websites, using only what any browser or mail server can already see. Most can be impersonated in email, and the typical independent business site scores a D. Here is what the outside of Waterloo Ontario's small-business web looks like, and how to close the most common gaps.

87%
of independent Waterloo Ontario businesses can be impersonated in email.

How Waterloo Ontario grades out

Every site gets one A to F grade. The typical independent Waterloo Ontario business scores a D.

A
C
D+
D
A 7.3%B 5.8%C 20.7%D+ 31.1%D 31.6%D- 1.1%F 2.6%
Typical grade by category
Email
F
Headers
B
TLS
A+
DNS
A+
Cookies
A+
Software
A+

The overall grade is held down by its weakest category. The rest of the region’s web is often in far better shape.

What we found, and how to fix it

Share of independent businesses with each gap, next to Waterloo Ontario's 181 chains and franchises for comparison. Every one is fixable.

87%
Local
64.6%
Chains
Can be impersonated in email (no DMARC enforcement)
408 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
0.9%
Local
2.2%
Chains
Running software with a known CVE
4 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
67.3%
Local
82.8%
Chains
WordPress sites exposing their admin usernames
70 of 104 WordPress sites
How to fix this →
71%
Local
66.9%
Chains
No Content-Security-Policy header
333 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
55.4%
Local
41.4%
Chains
Missing core security headers
260 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
62%
Local
54.1%
Chains
No HSTS (browsers can be downgraded to HTTP)
291 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
27.5%
Local
22.1%
Chains
No SPF record
129 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
22.4%
Local
15.5%
Chains
Not enforcing HTTPS
105 of 469 sites
How to fix this →
4.5%
Local
2.8%
Chains
Expired or untrusted TLS certificate
21 of 469 sites
How to fix this →

Context: 22.2% of these sites run WordPress (104 of 469). Running WordPress is not a problem in itself; it just means the WordPress-specific gaps above apply.

What Waterloo Ontario gets right

Security basics a good share of these businesses already have in place.

73.8%enforce HTTPS
92.5%have a valid, trusted certificate
13%enforce DMARC (quarantine or reject)
29.9%send a strong HSTS header
27.1%have a strict SPF record (-all)

How Waterloo Ontario has changed

2 scans since July 2026. Lower is better on every line.

Spoofable email
87%▼ 0.4 pts
was 87.4%
No HTTPS
22.4%▲ 2.7 pts
was 19.7%
No HSTS
62%▼ 0.7 pts
was 62.7%
0%25%50%75%100%July 2026August 2026Spoofable emailNo HTTPSNo HSTS

Grade mix over time

D
C
July 2026
typ. D+
D
C
August 2026
typ. D

Where does your site land?

Run the same free scan on your own website and get your grade, plus the exact fixes, in under a minute. No login.

Run a free security scan

Method & sources

  • Passive and read-only: public DNS records plus a single homepage request per site. No logins, no test emails, no active or intrusive testing.
  • Sites were drawn from OpenStreetMap within Waterloo Ontario's administrative boundary, deduplicated by domain. 650 of 677 sites had a reachable website and were scored; the rest had no reachable website.
  • Of those, the headline figures cover the 469 independent businesses; the 181 chains and franchises (a domain at many locations, or carrying a brand tag) were set aside so the numbers reflect locally-owned businesses.
  • Figures are aggregate and anonymized: no individual business is named.

Data sources: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Cite this report

CyberBadger Labs, "Waterloo Ontario Business Website Security" (2026). n=650 waterloo ontario business websites. Data: © OpenStreetMap contributors.