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Security report for abcnews.com

ABC News · Media · United States

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

46/100

Risk levelHigh

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

ABC News is a well-established major US media company providing comprehensive news coverage, including breaking news, live video, and in-depth articles. It operates under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Company, leveraging a strong brand and extensive content offerings to serve a broad audience interested in current events, politics, business, health, and entertainment. The website demonstrates a high level of digital maturity with modern technologies such as React and AWS CloudFront CDN, ensuring good performance and user experience across devices. However, a critical security gap exists due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS enforcement, which significantly impacts the site's security posture. Despite this, privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, and the site integrates multiple advertising and analytics services responsibly. Overall, ABC News maintains a high level of professionalism and trustworthiness but should urgently address its SSL/TLS configuration to enhance security and user trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of abcnews.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 100 · Critical
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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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';…

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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
60
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
Average
46

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 strong market position as a leading US news provider with a large, diverse audience. Its business model centers on content creation and distribution, supported by advertising and partnerships with platforms like Hulu. The company benefits from its association with Disney, which provides brand strength and operational support. Key services include live news streaming, video content, and extensive written coverage across multiple topical areas. The website's content is professionally curated, with consistent branding and high-quality media assets. The presence of multiple subsidiary sites and partner domains reflects a broad ecosystem supporting its media operations. The company targets general consumers seeking reliable news and information, leveraging digital channels to maximize reach and engagement.

Security posture

The current security posture of ABC News' website is suboptimal due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS support, which are critical for protecting user data and ensuring secure communications. Additional security features such as HSTS, OCSP stapling, and session resumption are not implemented, further weakening the site's defenses. While the site uses secure cookies and reputable hosting via AWS CloudFront, these measures are insufficient without proper TLS encryption. No explicit security or incident response policies are found on the site, indicating potential gaps in transparency and readiness. The domain's DNS and SPF/DMARC configurations are well-managed, aligning with best practices for email security. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues is recommended to mitigate risks and improve user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  3. Implement OCSP stapling to improve certificate validation performance and security.
  4. Enable TLS session resumption mechanisms such as session tickets or session cache.
  5. Publish clear security and incident response policies to enhance transparency and user confidence.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a modern technology stack including React for frontend rendering and New Relic for performance monitoring. It is hosted on AWS infrastructure using CloudFront CDN for efficient content delivery. The site includes extensive JavaScript assets and uses advanced techniques like preloading fonts and images for performance optimization. SEO is well addressed with comprehensive meta tags, Open Graph data, and JSON-LD structured data. Accessibility features and mobile optimization are good, ensuring a positive user experience. However, the lack of HTTPS and valid SSL certificate is a significant technical deficiency that undermines security and may impact SEO rankings. Performance metrics are not fully available but inferred as moderate based on resource usage and CDN presence. Overall, the technical implementation is robust but requires urgent security enhancements.
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. 55/100Medium28 findingsView report
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