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Security report for afghanistanbusinessjournal.com

Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Afghanistan Business Journal · 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

Afghanistan Business Journal is an online news publication operated by Newsmatics Inc. under the Affinity Group Publishing brand. It focuses on delivering business and economic news related to Afghanistan, targeting professionals, investors, and readers interested in the region's economic developments. The website offers press releases, latest news articles, video content, and email subscription alerts, positioning itself as a niche regional media outlet. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Google Tag Manager for analytics. It employs a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and is mobile optimized with good navigation and content structure. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data but lacks DNSSEC and some security headers, indicating room for improvement. The domain registration is consistent with the business age and claims, registered via GoDaddy without privacy protection, enhancing trust. Overall, the site is professional, secure, and compliant with basic privacy standards, serving its target audience effectively.

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 afghanistanbusinessjournal.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

The business operates in the media sector, specifically focusing on Afghanistan's business and economic news. It leverages a digital publishing model with content aggregation, press release distribution, and email alerts as revenue or engagement drivers. The company is small-sized, founded in 2021, and affiliated with Newsmatics Inc. and Affinity Group Publishing, indicating a partnership ecosystem. The website's market position is niche, targeting a specialized audience interested in Afghanistan's economy. The presence of multiple external reputable news sources and local journalists linked suggests a credible content network. The business model relies on content publishing and possibly advertising or sponsored press releases. Growth indicators include regular updates and multimedia content. Strategic observations include potential to expand partnerships and improve security posture to enhance trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and no sensitive data is exposed in the HTML content. Cookie consent is implemented, reflecting privacy awareness. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a notable DNS security gap. Security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options are not detected, which could mitigate common web attacks. There is no visible security policy or incident response information, nor a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file, indicating limited transparency on security practices. The site uses Google Tag Manager, which requires careful configuration to avoid injection risks. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a media site but could be improved by implementing recommended headers, DNSSEC, and publishing security policies to enhance trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information to increase transparency.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and Google Tag Manager configurations to minimize tracking and injection risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Newsmatics Inc. dba Affinity Group Publishing & Afghanistan Business Journal
Description
Afghanistan Business Journal is an online news publication focusing on business & economy in Afghanistan, exploring business and economy news.
Key services
Publishing press releases, Latest news articles, Email news alerts, Video content, News submission platform
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

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

Security

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

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 niche business news publication focused on Afghanistan economy.
  2. Content is current and relevant with multiple press releases and news articles.
  3. Clear contact phone number and email subscription form present.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism implemented.
  5. No explicit security or incident response policies found.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information.
  7. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  8. Use of Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking.
  9. Domain registration and WHOIS data consistent with business claims.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built with modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, using StimulusJS for frontend controllers and Vanilla Cookie Consent for privacy compliance. Google Tag Manager is integrated for analytics and marketing. The site appears custom-built or uses a proprietary CMS, with no common CMS footprints detected. Hosting is likely managed by Newsmatics infrastructure, as indicated by nameservers. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks include lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers. The site uses asynchronous script loading for analytics, improving load times. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but can benefit from enhanced security configurations and performance tuning.
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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