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Security report for abc7.com

ABC7 Los Angeles · Media · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ABC7 Los Angeles is a well-established regional news media outlet serving Los Angeles and the greater Southern California area. The website provides breaking news, live streaming video, and comprehensive local news coverage, positioning itself as a leading source of information for its target audience. The business operates under the ABC Owned Television Stations, a subsidiary of Disney, reflecting a strong corporate backing and market presence. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including React for frontend rendering, Braze for customer engagement, and New Relic for performance monitoring. Hosting and DNS services are provided via Amazon AWS, ensuring reliable infrastructure. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, contributing to a positive user experience. From a security perspective, ABC7.com enforces HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and implements key security headers. The domain registration is transparent and consistent with the business identity, with no privacy protection masking registrant data. Cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR-compliant privacy policies are in place, indicating good privacy compliance. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and no explicit security or incident response policies are published. Overall, ABC7.com presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility, technical maturity, and compliance posture. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing a security policy and vulnerability disclosure, and enhancing transparency around data protection officer contacts to further strengthen trust and security culture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 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

4 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. 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

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

Keep watching abc7.com

This scan found 19 issues across 5 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
82
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
74

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

ABC7 Los Angeles holds a strong market position as a regional leader in Southern California news media. Its business model centers on news broadcasting and digital content delivery, monetized through advertising and partnerships. The company benefits from its affiliation with ABC Owned Television Stations and Disney, providing competitive advantages in brand recognition and resource access. The target audience is broad, encompassing general consumers seeking local news and live video content. The website's integration with major social media platforms and use of advanced marketing tools like Braze indicate a mature digital marketing strategy. Growth indicators include consistent content updates and multi-platform presence. No direct subsidiaries or partner domains beyond corporate affiliations were identified.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, robust SSL configuration, and implementation of standard security headers such as HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and Content-Security-Policy. The domain's WHOIS data is consistent and transparent, enhancing trustworthiness. Cookie consent and privacy policies comply with GDPR, reflecting regulatory awareness. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of a publicly available security policy or incident response page represent areas for improvement. The use of third-party scripts and ad networks is managed with consent mechanisms, but continuous monitoring is advised to mitigate supply chain risks. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident, suggesting potential gaps in security culture and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Implement a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance visibility of data protection officer contact information to strengthen GDPR compliance and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ABC7 Los Angeles
Description
Los Angeles' source for breaking news and live streaming video online. Covering Los Angeles, Orange County and all of the greater Southern California area.
Key services
breaking news, live streaming video, local news coverage
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Braze (customer engagement), New Relic (performance monitoring), AWS DNS, Google IMA SDK (ads), OneTrust (cookie consent), ESPN DCF tags
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Client and server transfer prohibitions on domain
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • Use of security monitoring tools (New Relic)

Analytics and tracking

Services
New Relic, ScorecardResearch
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google IMA SDK
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, New Relic, Braze
Marketing tools
Braze, OneTrust
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional regional news outlet for Los Angeles and Southern California.
  2. Uses modern web technologies and performance monitoring.
  3. Implements GDPR-compliant privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  5. Strong brand presence with consistent social media integration.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring React for frontend development, supported by customer engagement tools like Braze and performance monitoring via New Relic. Hosting is managed through Amazon AWS, ensuring scalability and reliability. The site demonstrates fast loading times, excellent mobile responsiveness, and good accessibility features. SEO is well addressed with comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. The use of multiple external scripts and ad networks is balanced with user consent mechanisms. Technical debt appears minimal, though enabling DNSSEC and consolidating third-party dependencies could further reduce risk. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a high-quality user experience and robust operational performance.
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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