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Security report for acm.media

Australian Community Media · Media · Australia

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Australian Community Media (ACM) operates as Australia's largest independent regional and rural digital media company, connecting over 5.2 million Australians monthly through a portfolio of more than 100 brands. The company focuses on delivering trusted local journalism, insight-driven marketing solutions, and community partnerships to strengthen and inform regional communities. ACM's market position is strong within the Australian media landscape, particularly in regional and rural sectors, offering advertisers targeted access to diverse audience segments.

Scanned

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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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';…

  2. 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

  3. 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 acm.media

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

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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
30
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
68

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

ACM's business model centers on publishing and advertising, leveraging a broad network of print and digital mastheads with national and local content. Their competitive advantage lies in deep community engagement and a diversified audience portfolio including families, grocery buyers, millennials, boomers, and farming families. The company demonstrates growth through strategic partnerships and research-driven marketing solutions. ACM maintains a professional digital presence with consistent branding and active social media channels, supporting its market leadership in regional media.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration and uses Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms, indicating a baseline security posture. However, the absence of explicit security headers and published security policies suggests room for improvement in defense-in-depth strategies. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The domain registration is consistent and legitimate, supporting trustworthiness. Incident response and security contact information are not publicly available, which could be a compliance gap.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a formal security policy and incident response contact details to enhance transparency and compliance.
  2. Enable DNSSEC to improve domain security and prevent DNS spoofing.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen web security posture.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and plugins for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Community Media
Description
ACM Media is Australia‘s largest independent publishing group with more than 100 brands. It is Australia’s leading regional and rural digital media company connecting over 5.2 million people monthly through trusted local content, insight-led marketing solutions, and community partnerships.
Key services
Independent journalism, Insight-led marketing solutions, Community partnership programs, Advertising solutions, Research and consumer insights
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google reCAPTCHA
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
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 professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is relevant to Australian regional media and advertising.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  5. Social media presence is consistent with business identity.
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage; contact via form only.
  7. Security policies and incident response information are not explicitly published.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with Yoast SEO plugin, Google Tag Manager, and Google Analytics integration, reflecting a modern and standard technology stack for media companies. Hosting is via Amazon AWS DNS infrastructure, indicating reliable hosting. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO is well implemented with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical debt appears low, but security enhancements and accessibility improvements could further modernize the platform.
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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