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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

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

American City Business Journals (ACBJ) is a leading publisher of metropolitan business newsweeklies in the United States, operating 44 publications and reaching over 3.6 million readers weekly. Their portfolio includes specialty publications such as those for classic car enthusiasts. The website reflects a mature digital presence with professional design, clear navigation, and comprehensive privacy and cookie consent mechanisms, indicating compliance with GDPR and related regulations. The business model centers on publishing and advertising revenue, targeting business professionals and metropolitan audiences. Technically, the site uses established technologies like jQuery, Bootstrap, and New Relic for monitoring, alongside Ethyca Fides for consent management, demonstrating a commitment to performance and privacy.

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

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 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 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 25 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

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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
57
Security headers
35
Email security
40
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
60

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 metropolitan business news publisher in the US, with a diversified brand portfolio including AmericanInno, BizEquity, BizLeads, Bizwomen, Hemmings, and The Business Journals. Their business model leverages advertising and subscription revenue streams, targeting business professionals and niche audiences. The company employs over 1,400 staff, indicating a large operational scale. The website's external links and brand mentions confirm a broad partnership and subsidiary ecosystem. The presence of privacy policies and user agreements updated recently reflects ongoing regulatory compliance efforts.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and integrates privacy consent management via Ethyca Fides, reflecting good security hygiene. Use of New Relic Browser monitoring indicates active performance and error tracking. However, explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, or X-Frame-Options are not detected, representing an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified in the analysis. The absence of published security policies or incident response contacts suggests room to enhance transparency and preparedness. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from formalized policies and additional header protections.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance accessibility compliance to improve usability for all users and meet regulatory standards.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to minimize risk from vulnerabilities.
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, Specialty classic car publication, Advertising services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 2.1.4, Bootstrap, New Relic Browser monitoring, Ethyca Fides consent management
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Privacy consent management implemented
  • Google site verification present

Analytics and tracking

Services
New Relic Browser
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic
Marketing tools
Ethyca Fides
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. Strong privacy and cookie consent mechanisms implemented
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main pages
  4. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain trust verification
  5. Use of reputable third-party services like New Relic and Ethyca Fides
  6. No signs of adult or malicious content
  7. Good branding consistency and professional design
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a traditional but stable technology stack including jQuery 2.1.4 and Bootstrap for UI components, supported by New Relic for performance monitoring and Ethyca Fides for consent management. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO and accessibility basics, though accessibility could be improved. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. No CMS or hosting provider details were identified. The site uses multiple external domains for brand and advertising purposes, indicating a complex ecosystem. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs effectively but could modernize some components and enhance security configurations.
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. 62/100 −4Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 66/100Medium31 findingsView report
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