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Security report for abcnews.com

ABC News · Media · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ABC News is a leading American news media organization providing breaking news, live video, exclusive interviews, and comprehensive news coverage. It operates as part of The Walt Disney Company, leveraging a strong brand presence and extensive digital infrastructure. The website targets a general audience seeking timely and reliable news content across national and international topics. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including React, New Relic monitoring, and customer engagement tools like Braze, ensuring a responsive and performant user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and security headers, though explicit privacy and cookie policies are not clearly presented in the analyzed HTML. Overall, ABC News demonstrates a mature digital presence with high content quality and business credibility, though improvements in privacy compliance and contact transparency are recommended.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching abcnews.com

This scan found 20 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.

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Recommended

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  • 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
0
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
55

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

ABC News holds a prominent market position as a major US news outlet under Disney's ownership. Its business model centers on content publishing, advertising, and digital media distribution. The company benefits from a broad partnership ecosystem including Disney streaming services and ESPN. Revenue streams likely include advertising, sponsored content, and licensing. The target customer segment is broad, encompassing general news consumers. Growth indicators include extensive multimedia content and live streaming capabilities. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining trust through transparent privacy practices and enhancing user engagement via personalized content.

Security posture

The website exhibits a strong security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. Use of modern monitoring and analytics tools indicates active security and performance management. However, the absence of published security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms represents a compliance gap. The site should enhance transparency around data protection and incident handling to align with best practices and regulatory requirements such as GDPR and NIS2. No critical vulnerabilities were detected in the provided content.

Recommendations

  1. Publish clear and accessible privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms to improve compliance.
  2. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program and security incident response contacts.
  3. Enhance transparency by providing visible company contact information for general and security inquiries.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate potential security risks.
  5. Implement ongoing user privacy education and trust-building measures to strengthen brand reputation.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ABC News
Description
Your trusted source for breaking news, analysis, exclusive interviews, headlines, and videos at ABCNews.com
Key services
breaking news, video news, live streaming, exclusive interviews, news analysis
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, JavaScript, New Relic monitoring, Braze (customer engagement), Google Tag Manager, ScorecardResearch, ESPN DTCI scripts
Frameworks
React
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CSP
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure cookies (implied by scripts)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, ScorecardResearch, Google Analytics (via GTM implied)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Chartbeat
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, Braze
Marketing tools
Braze
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major US news media outlet owned by Disney
  2. Content is rich, professionally presented, and updated with current news
  3. No signs of adult or malicious content
  4. Uses modern web technologies and analytics
  5. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on homepage HTML
  6. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service links found in provided HTML snippet
  7. WHOIS data unavailable due to domain being a subdomain under go.com
  8. No WAF or blocking detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern React framework with extensive use of JavaScript and third-party integrations such as New Relic for monitoring and Braze for customer engagement. Performance is optimized with preloading fonts and images, and the site is mobile responsive with good accessibility features. Hosting is managed under Disney's infrastructure, ensuring scalability and reliability. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require continuous security oversight. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a high-quality user experience with room for enhanced privacy and security transparency.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 46/100High33 findingsView report
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