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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

69/100

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 DSP, SSP, engagement platforms, and search solutions. The company targets businesses with large user bases seeking to enhance user engagement and revenue through tailored advertising technologies. The recent acquisition of Underdog Media expands their access to premium publisher inventory, strengthening their market position. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, hosted likely on AWS infrastructure. The site is well-designed, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly, providing a good user experience. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and CAPTCHA protections, but lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers, which are recommended for improvement. Privacy compliance is basic with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism detected. Overall, the domain registration data aligns well with the business claims, supporting legitimacy and trustworthiness.

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 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 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

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
77
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
69

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 programmatic advertising solutions for enterprise and medium-sized clients. Their business model is B2B, providing customizable advertising platforms and search solutions. The company leverages partnerships and acquisitions, such as Underdog Media, to enhance inventory and service offerings. Their target customers are companies with large user bases looking to monetize and engage audiences effectively. The website content and structure reflect a professional and consistent brand image, supporting their market credibility. Growth indicators include recent acquisitions and a comprehensive service portfolio. The partnership ecosystem includes LinkedIn presence and integration with major analytics and advertising platforms.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options indicates room for improvement. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, which could be a compliance gap. The use of modern analytics tools suggests awareness of data collection practices, but cookie consent mechanisms are missing, impacting GDPR compliance. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could be enhanced to meet higher compliance and protection standards.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Publish explicit security policies and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Consider adding direct contact emails and phone numbers for better customer and security communication.
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 help companies with large user bases increase 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 reCAPTCHA, Microsoft Clarity, Google Analytics, AWS DNS
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on forms
  • Use of Microsoft Clarity for analytics

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Tracking pixels
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 and relevant to programmatic advertising.
  3. Use of modern analytics and tracking tools with some privacy compliance elements.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage; contact is via form.
  5. No explicit security policies or incident response information published.
  6. DNSSEC not enabled which is a minor security gap.
  7. WHOIS data is transparent and consistent with business claims.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with plugins such as Contact Form 7 and Google reCAPTCHA, indicating a standard but modern infrastructure. Hosting appears to be on AWS based on DNS servers. The site uses Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity for user behavior tracking and analytics. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The technical stack is well-maintained with no visible deprecated or vulnerable libraries. Opportunities exist to enhance security configurations and privacy compliance mechanisms to reduce technical risks and improve operational resilience.
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. 70/100 +2Medium30 findingsView report
  2. 68/100Medium32 findingsView report
  3. 64/100Medium9 findings · partial scanView report
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