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Is bdo.co.za a Scam? Security Check Results - BDO Reviews

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Is bdo.co.za Safe? Security Analysis for BDO

Check if bdo.co.za is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

FinanceSouth Africalarge
JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerFacebook PixelHotjarCookiebot+2 more
Analyzed 10/3/2025Completed 4:59:43 PM
82
Security Score
LOW RISK

AI Summary

BDO South Africa operates as a professional consulting firm specializing in business advisory, audit, tax, and business outsourcing services. The website reflects a well-established presence in the South African finance sector, targeting businesses and organizations seeking expert financial and advisory services. The company positions itself as a trusted partner with a comprehensive service offering tailored to various industries. Technically, the website employs modern technologies including Kentico CMS, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, and Microsoft Application Insights, indicating a mature digital infrastructure with integrated analytics and marketing tools. The site is mobile-optimized and demonstrates good SEO practices, although some accessibility features could be improved. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and uses cookie consent management via Cookiebot, but lacks explicit security headers and visible privacy policy or terms of service pages in the provided content. No WHOIS data is available due to privacy protection, but the domain appears legitimate based on content and technology. Overall, the website is professional and secure with room for enhanced transparency and compliance documentation.

Detected Technologies

JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerFacebook PixelHotjarCookiebotMicrosoft Application InsightsKentico CMS

🧠AI Business Intelligence

Technology stack, business insights, and market analysis powered by AI.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

BDO South Africa holds a strong market position as a large professional services firm in the finance sector. Its business model focuses on delivering audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing services to a broad range of industries. The firm leverages partnerships with major platforms such as LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft for marketing and analytics. Revenue streams likely include consulting fees, audit engagements, and outsourcing contracts. The target customer segments are medium to large enterprises and organizations requiring financial and advisory expertise. Growth indicators include the use of advanced digital marketing and analytics tools. The absence of visible contact information on the homepage suggests a possible reliance on direct client relationships or internal contact channels. The company ecosystem includes integrations with multiple third-party services for enhanced user tracking and marketing effectiveness.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and a robust cookie consent mechanism that blocks scripts until user consent is given. The use of Microsoft Application Insights and Hotjar indicates active monitoring of site performance and user behavior. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options is a gap that could expose the site to certain web-based attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact information reduces transparency and may impact compliance with regulations such as GDPR or NIS2. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved by adding security headers and publishing clear security and privacy documentation.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages accessible from the homepage.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

BDO

Description:

BDO is a consulting firm that offers business advisory, audit, tax and numerous business outsourcing services in different sectors and industries

Key Services:
business advisoryaudittaxbusiness outsourcing services
Content Quality:

good

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerFacebook PixelHotjarCookiebotMicrosoft Application InsightsKentico CMS
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
85/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with blocking mode
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure form submission with source tracking

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsHotjarMicrosoft Application Insights
Tracking Level:extensive
Privacy Compliance:basic

Advertising & Marketing

Ad Networks:
Google AdsFacebook AdsMicrosoft Ads
Tracking Pixels:
Facebook PixelHotjarMicrosoft Application Insights
Marketing Tools:
CookiebotHotjar
Transparency Level:good

Website Quality Assessment

Design Quality:good
User Experience:good
Content Relevance:good
Navigation Clarity:good
Professionalism:good
Trustworthiness:high

Key Observations

1

Website uses Cookiebot for GDPR cookie consent management

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

70/100
Score

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

Missing Referrer-Policy header

LOW

Controls referrer information sent with requests

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

88/100
Score

Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

MEDIUM

Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

GDPR Compliance Analysis

Privacy Policy85% confidence
Cookie Policy85% confidence
Contact Information Found90% confidence
phone

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

67/100
Score

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts

📧Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation and email security assessment.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

70/100
Score

No DKIM record found

MEDIUM

DKIM adds cryptographic signatures to emails

No BIMI Record

LOW

BIMI displays brand logos in email clients

No MTA-STS Policy

MEDIUM

MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

No TLS-RPT Record

LOW

TLS-RPT provides reporting for email TLS issues

SPF
Sender Policy Framework
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication
MX Records
Mail Exchange Records
BIMI
Brand Indicators
MTA-STS
Mail Transfer Agent Security
TLS-RPT
TLS Reporting
DNSSEC
DNS Security
SPF Details
Record:
v=spf1 include:_netblocks.mimecast.com -all
DNS Lookups:1/10
Policy:-all
DMARC Details
Policy:quarantine
Aggregate Reports:41c389072938697@rep.dmarcanalyzer.com
Forensic Reports:41c389072938697@for.dmarcanalyzer.com

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

100/100
Score

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Certificate Details

Subject:bdo.co.za
Issuer:Entrust OV TLS Issuing RSA CA 1
Valid Until:1/30/2026 (118 days)
SANs:bdo.co.za, www.bdo.co.za

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

80/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found

Domain Delete Lock Not Enabled

LOW

Domain can be deleted without additional verification

Domain Registration Details

Domain Age
30 years(mature)
Expiry Risk
medium(88 days)
Protection Level
basicDNSSEC OFF

DNS Records

A Records:20.107.224.11
Name Servers:
ns1.lexsynergy.net
ns2.lexsynergy.us
ns3.lexsynergy.info
MX Records:
10: za-smtp-inbound-2.mimecast.co.za
10: za-smtp-inbound-1.mimecast.co.za
SOA:Serial: 24, TTL: 600s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:38ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 include:_netblocks.mimecast.com -all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website is built on Kentico CMS and integrates multiple modern technologies such as Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, and Microsoft Application Insights for analytics and marketing. The site uses asynchronous loading for scripts to optimize performance and includes preconnect and preload directives for fonts and CSS to improve load times. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. SEO is supported by meta tags and canonical links. However, no explicit CMS version or hosting provider information was found. The site could benefit from enhanced accessibility and security header implementation. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and supports the business objectives effectively.
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