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Security report for addisababadailypress.com

Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Addis Ababa Daily Press · Media · United States

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

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Addis Ababa Daily Press is an online news publication operated by Newsmatics Inc., focusing on providing daily news updates and press releases related to Ethiopia. The website serves a general audience interested in Ethiopian news and regional developments. It offers news articles, press releases, video content, and email alerts, positioning itself as a niche regional media outlet. The business model centers on content distribution and news aggregation with a small company size and a founding year of 2021. The parent company, Newsmatics Inc., is based in the United States, aligning with the contact phone number and domain registration data. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Google Tag Manager for analytics. It employs a custom or proprietary CMS and shows good mobile optimization and SEO practices. The site is hosted on infrastructure associated with newsmatics.com and uses GoDaddy as the domain registrar. Performance is moderate with good accessibility and navigation clarity. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms, indicating awareness of privacy compliance. However, it lacks visible security headers and a published security policy or incident response information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The domain registration is consistent and legitimate, with no privacy protection masking ownership, which is appropriate for a media business. Overall, the website presents a moderate risk profile with good content quality and business credibility. Recommendations include enhancing security headers, enabling DNSSEC, publishing a security policy, and adding vulnerability disclosure information to improve trust and compliance.

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 addisababadailypress.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

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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
52
Security headers
50
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
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

Addis Ababa Daily Press operates as a focused media outlet delivering news and press releases about Ethiopia. Its market positioning is that of a niche regional news provider supported by a small US-based parent company, Newsmatics Inc. The business model relies on content aggregation, press release distribution, and email alert subscriptions. The company leverages partnerships with affinitygrouppublishing.com, indicating a broader publishing network. The target customers are general news consumers interested in Ethiopian affairs. Growth indicators include a domain age of 4 years and consistent content updates. The partnership ecosystem includes local media and journalists linked on the site, enhancing content credibility and reach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic to moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and cookie consent is implemented, supporting privacy compliance. However, the absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options reduces the security posture. No incident response or security policy is published, and no vulnerability disclosure mechanism is present. The domain is registered transparently with no privacy protection, which supports trustworthiness. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. Overall, the site is secure for general use but would benefit from enhanced security controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options.
  2. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security.
  3. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Addis Ababa Daily Press
Description
Addis Ababa Daily Press is an online news publication focusing on Ethiopia, providing daily news updates.
Key services
News articles, Press releases, Email news alerts, Video content
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Vanilla Cookie Consent
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

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
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is a legitimate news publication focused on Ethiopia.
  2. Content is accessible and well structured with multiple news and press release articles.
  3. Cookie consent is implemented with a visible banner and script.
  4. No security.txt or explicit security policy found.
  5. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities in HTML.
  6. WHOIS data is consistent and domain is registered with a reputable registrar.
  7. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  8. Uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking.
  9. No social media official links found in HTML content.
  10. Contact phone number is US based, consistent with parent company location.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, including Google Tag Manager for analytics and Vanilla Cookie Consent for privacy compliance. The presence of StimulusJS controllers suggests a modular JavaScript framework usage. The CMS appears custom or proprietary, with no common CMS signatures detected. Hosting is via infrastructure linked to newsmatics.com, with DNS managed by GoDaddy. Performance is moderate with good mobile responsiveness and SEO optimization. Accessibility is basic but functional. There is opportunity to improve technical robustness by adding security headers and enabling DNSSEC.
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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