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Security report for 404media.co

404 Media · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

404 Media is a new independent media company founded by experienced technology journalists. The company focuses on technology journalism and media publishing, targeting a general audience interested in tech news. The website is professionally designed using modern web technologies including Ghost CMS, and integrates third-party services such as Disqus for comments, Stripe for payments, and Plausible for analytics. The technical infrastructure is modern and supports good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data, but lacks explicit security headers and formal privacy or cookie policies. No contact information or incident response details are provided, which limits transparency. Overall, the website is safe, trustworthy, and professionally maintained but could improve in privacy compliance and security best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 100 · Medium
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. 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching 404media.co

This scan found 21 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • 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
95
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
69

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 company positions itself as a new independent media outlet in the technology journalism sector. It leverages a subscription or membership model facilitated by Ghost CMS and Stripe payments. The target market includes technology enthusiasts and general readers interested in tech news. The business model is content-driven with potential revenue from subscriptions and advertising. The company maintains a social media presence on Twitter and Facebook, enhancing its reach. No parent company or subsidiaries are indicated, suggesting a standalone operation. The use of privacy protection in domain registration is typical for startups. The company could benefit from clearer contact and compliance information to strengthen business credibility.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS ensuring encrypted communications. However, no explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options were detected in the HTML content, which could improve protection against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the source. The site uses third-party scripts which should be regularly audited for security. Absence of a security policy or incident response contact reduces readiness for handling security incidents. Privacy compliance is minimal with no visible privacy or cookie policies, which may pose regulatory risks. Overall, the security posture is moderate but can be enhanced by implementing security headers, formal policies, and incident response mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy accessible from the website footer or main menu.
  2. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Provide clear contact information including emails or forms for security incidents and general inquiries.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to improve transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
404 Media
Description
404 Media is a new independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.
Key services
technology journalism, media publishing
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS, Google Fonts, PWA (disabled), Disqus (commenting system), Stripe (payment processing), Ghost CMS, Contextly widgets, Plausible Analytics
Frameworks
Ghost CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern JS and CSS assets

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
BuySellAds
Tracking pixels
Plausible Analytics
Marketing tools
Contextly widgets
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and uses modern web technologies.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the site.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  4. Uses Ghost CMS platform hosted on ghost.io.
  5. Includes social media links to Twitter and Facebook.
  6. Includes third-party scripts for analytics, commenting, and payments.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page detected.
  8. No security headers explicitly detected in HTML content.
  9. No signs of WAF or content blocking.
  10. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Ghost CMS platform, hosted on ghost.io, using modern JavaScript and CSS assets. It leverages Google Fonts for typography and integrates third-party services including Disqus for comments, Stripe for payments, and Plausible for privacy-focused analytics. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and good SEO metadata including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data. Performance is moderate with preloading of critical assets. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to improve accessibility features and implement progressive web app capabilities which are currently disabled.
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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