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Security report for acbj.com

American City Business Journals · Media · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

American City Business Journals (ACBJ) is a well-established media company specializing in metropolitan business news across the United States. With a domain registered since 1998 and a large portfolio of 44 business publications, ACBJ serves over 3.6 million readers weekly. Their business model focuses on publishing, advertising, and specialty content such as classic car enthusiast publications. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand image with clear navigation and comprehensive information about their brands, careers, and contact options. Technically, the website uses a modern but common technology stack including jQuery and Bootstrap, hosted on Amazon AWS infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and includes a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in accessibility and SEO. Security posture is good with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data, though security headers are not visibly implemented and no explicit security policy or incident response information is published. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional, with strong business credibility and privacy compliance. No adult or questionable content is present. The WHOIS data confirms legitimacy with consistent registration details and a long domain age appropriate for the business history. Recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy and vulnerability disclosure, and improving accessibility features to further strengthen the security and compliance posture.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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

    • 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 acbj.com

This scan found 23 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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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
67
Security headers
35
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

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

ACBJ holds a dominant market position as the largest publisher of metropolitan business newsweeklies in the US, leveraging a broad network of 44 publications and multiple subsidiary brands. Their competitive advantage lies in their extensive reach and specialized content offerings. Revenue streams likely include advertising, subscriptions, and specialty publication sales. The target customers are business professionals and metropolitan readers, with additional niche audiences such as classic car enthusiasts. Growth indicators include a large employee base and multiple brands. The partnership ecosystem includes advertising platforms and subsidiary companies, supporting a diversified media portfolio. Strategic observations suggest a mature business with stable market presence and opportunities to modernize technical infrastructure and enhance security transparency.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and a cookie consent mechanism that supports GDPR compliance. However, the absence of visible security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options represents a gap in best practices. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of published security policies or incident response contacts limits transparency and readiness communication. Data protection practices appear adequate but could be improved by publishing a security.txt file and incident response information. Overall, the security culture is implied but not explicitly documented, suggesting room for improvement in formal security governance and communication.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information page to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Create and maintain a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance website accessibility features to meet higher standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities and technical debt.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
American City Business Journals
Description
American City Business Journals (ACBJ) is the largest publisher of metropolitan business newsweeklies in the United States, with 44 business publications across the country reaching more than 3.6 million readers each week. They also offer a specialty publication for classic car enthusiasts.
Key services
Business news publications, Advertising services, Specialty publications
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, Fides Consent Management
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in/out
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Fides Consent Management
Marketing tools
Fides Consent Management
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Clear navigation with dropdown menus for company info, brands, careers, and contact.
  3. Cookie consent mechanism implemented with granular controls.
  4. No direct email addresses or phone numbers found on the homepage; contact via form.
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response info published.
  6. No visible security headers in HTML content; server headers not provided.
  7. Use of common libraries like jQuery and Bootstrap.
  8. Hosting appears to be on AWS infrastructure.
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  10. No adult or NSFW content present.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a standard technology stack featuring jQuery and Bootstrap, ensuring responsive design and basic interactivity. Hosting on AWS infrastructure provides scalability and reliability. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in load speed and SEO optimization. The site includes a cookie consent mechanism powered by Fides, indicating attention to privacy compliance. However, the absence of a detected CMS suggests a custom or proprietary platform. Technical debt is minimal but could arise from reliance on older jQuery versions. Modernization opportunities include upgrading to newer JavaScript frameworks and enhancing SEO and accessibility compliance. Technical risks are low but include missing security headers and potential outdated libraries.
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. 60/100 −6Medium33 findingsView report
  2. 66/100Medium31 findingsView report
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