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Security report for accranewsjournal.com

Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Accra News Journal · Media · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Accra News Journal is an established online news publication operated by Newsmatics Inc., focusing on delivering top news stories and press releases related to Ghana. The website serves a general audience interested in Ghanaian news, offering a variety of content including articles, press releases, videos, and links to local media and journalists. The business model centers on news aggregation and distribution with email alert subscriptions enhancing user engagement. The company has a consistent brand presence and a medium-sized operation with a history dating back to 1995. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking. The site uses a custom or proprietary CMS and demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in accessibility features. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and uses cookie consent mechanisms, but lacks explicit security headers and a dedicated security policy page. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by adding security headers and incident response information. The privacy compliance is good, with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR compliance indicators. The domain registration data aligns well with the website's business claims, supporting legitimacy and trustworthiness. No adult or questionable content is present, making the site safe for general audiences. The strategic recommendation is to improve security headers, provide explicit security and incident response policies, and maintain regular audits of third-party scripts to strengthen the security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  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

  4. 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 accranewsjournal.com

This scan found 24 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

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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
42
Security headers
50
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
66

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

Accra News Journal occupies a niche as a regional news media outlet focused on Ghana, leveraging press releases and local news aggregation to serve its audience. Its partnership with Affinity Group Publishing indicates a broader publishing network. The business model relies on content distribution, email alerts, and possibly advertising or sponsored press releases. The company targets general news consumers interested in Ghanaian affairs, including local and international stakeholders. The presence of video content and links to local journalists enhances its content diversity and credibility. The company benefits from a long operational history and consistent branding, positioning it as a reliable media source in its market segment.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and cookie consent is implemented, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options is a gap that could expose the site to certain web-based attacks. No incident response or security contact information is provided, which limits transparency and readiness for security events. The use of Google Tag Manager introduces a moderate tracking footprint but is managed asynchronously to reduce performance impact. Overall, the site is secure for general use but would benefit from enhanced security controls and documented policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to ensure ongoing GDPR and global privacy compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Accra News Journal
Description
Accra News Journal is an online news publication focusing on Ghana, providing top news stories and press releases related to Ghana.
Key services
News articles, Press releases, Email news alerts, Video content, Local media and journalist links
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Vanilla Cookie Consent
Frameworks
Turbo (turbo-progress-bar), StimulusJS (data-controller usage)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional news publication focused on Ghana.
  2. Content includes press releases, latest news, videos, and local media links.
  3. Clear navigation and multiple ways to contact or subscribe to alerts.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and cookie consent mechanisms.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and long-standing operation.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, supported by frameworks like Turbo and StimulusJS for interactivity. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and tracking, loaded asynchronously to optimize performance. The site appears to be custom-built or uses a proprietary CMS, with no common CMS signatures detected. Performance is moderate, with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Accessibility is basic and could be improved. Hosting provider details are not explicitly available. The site uses a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but has opportunities for modernization and enhanced accessibility.
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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