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Security report for advertising.com

advertising.com · Technology · N/a

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

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Advertising.com is a mature technology company specializing in programmatic advertising solutions, offering a suite of services including engagement platforms, search solutions, demand-side and supply-side platforms. The company targets businesses with large user bases seeking to optimize digital advertising revenue and user engagement. The recent acquisition of Underdog Media expands their access to premium publisher inventory, reinforcing their market position. Technically, the website is built on WordPress, leveraging modern analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, hosted on AWS infrastructure with DNS managed by Amazon's nameservers. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and use of reCAPTCHA, though there is room for improvement in security headers and formal security policies. Privacy compliance is basic with presence of privacy and cookie policies but lacks explicit GDPR compliance indicators. Overall, the website is professional, well-branded, and trustworthy with no content safety concerns.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of advertising.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

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 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"

    • 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

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching advertising.com

This scan found 22 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
82
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention advertising.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
809
Employees
0
Customers
716
Third parties
93
Weak passwords
14%

22 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for advertising.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Advertising.com operates in the technology and media sectors, focusing on B2B programmatic advertising solutions. Their business model revolves around providing customizable advertising technologies to enhance client revenue and engagement. The company demonstrates growth through strategic acquisitions and partnerships, such as with Underdog Media. Their target customers are enterprises and medium to large businesses with significant digital audiences. The website content and structure reflect a clear value proposition and a consistent branding strategy. The presence of advanced analytics and tracking tools indicates a data-driven approach to marketing and performance optimization.

Security posture

The website maintains a good security baseline with HTTPS, Google reCAPTCHA integration, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of DNSSEC and key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests potential areas for enhancement. No formal security or incident response policies are published, which could impact trust and compliance. The WHOIS data is transparent and consistent, supporting legitimacy. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could benefit from formalized policies and additional technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Develop and make publicly available a formal security policy and incident response contact information.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or publish a security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance GDPR compliance by explicitly stating compliance measures and data retention policies.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
advertising.com
Description
Advertising.com provides advanced programmatic advertising solutions including custom DSPs, SSPs, branded engagement platforms, and search solutions to companies with large user bases to enhance user engagement, revenue, and brand presence.
Key services
Engagement Platform, Search Solutions, Demand-Side Platform (DSP), Supply-Side Platform (SSP)
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Contact Form 7, Google Clarity, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Google reCAPTCHA, AWS DNS
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Cloudflare (implied by challenge script) for CDN and security

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Microsoft Clarity
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented with clear business focus on programmatic advertising solutions.
  3. Use of modern tracking and analytics tools with basic privacy compliance.
  4. No explicit security policies or incident response information published.
  5. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and long-term presence.
  6. Recent acquisition of Underdog Media indicates active business growth.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform with a well-structured theme and uses popular plugins such as Contact Form 7 for forms and Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection. Analytics and user behavior tracking are implemented via Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, indicating a focus on data-driven insights. Hosting is managed through AWS infrastructure, providing scalability and reliability. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Accessibility is basic and could be improved to meet higher standards. Overall, the technical implementation supports the business goals effectively but has opportunities for modernization and enhanced security.
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. 69/100 +1Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 68/100Medium32 findingsView report
  3. 64/100Medium9 findings · partial scanView report
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