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Security report for afl.com.au

Australian Football League · Media · Australia

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Australian Football League (AFL) official website serves as the primary digital platform for delivering comprehensive sports content including news, videos, fixtures, scores, and related information to Australian football fans and the general public. The site is well-positioned as a leading sports media entity in Australia, offering additional services such as ticket sales, fantasy sports, and merchandise shopping. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure leveraging modern technologies such as React, service workers, and multiple analytics and tracking tools to optimize user experience and performance. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, although there is room for improvement in publishing explicit security policies and incident response contacts. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations, making it a reliable source for AFL-related content.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

5 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 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain shop.afl.com.au points to unregistered service d2kzvfhy8wmrks.cloudfront.net

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching afl.com.au

This scan found 17 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
65
Security headers
65
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
74

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

AFL operates in the media and sports sector with a large-scale online presence. Its business model includes content delivery, fan engagement through fantasy sports and tipping platforms, and revenue generation via ticketing and merchandise sales. The website integrates with numerous official club sites and partners, including Telstra and venue partners, indicating a robust partnership ecosystem. The site targets a broad audience of sports enthusiasts and leverages extensive digital marketing and analytics tools to drive engagement and optimize content delivery. The consistent branding and comprehensive content reflect a strong market position and operational maturity.

Security posture

The website exhibits a high level of security maturity with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no exposed sensitive information in the HTML content. Use of service workers and modern JavaScript frameworks is well-managed. However, the absence of publicly available security policies, vulnerability disclosure programs, and incident response contacts suggests potential gaps in transparency and readiness. Privacy compliance is addressed with visible privacy and cookie policies, but explicit GDPR details and data retention disclosures could be enhanced. Overall, the security posture is robust but could benefit from improved communication of security governance.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact information for security issues.
  4. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and tracking tools for vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance privacy disclosures with detailed GDPR compliance and data retention policies.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Australian Football League
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Football League
Description
Australian Football League. All the latest AFL news, video, results and information
Key services
News and updates, Video content, Match fixtures and results, Ticket sales, Fantasy sports platform, Merchandise shop
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, JavaScript, Service Workers, New Relic, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Adobe DTM, Chartbeat
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Service worker registered
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, Hotjar, New Relic, Google Tag Manager, Adobe DTM
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Akamai
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Hotjar, New Relic, Adobe DTM
Marketing tools
Mailchimp (empty config), Salesforce API
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official sports league website with comprehensive content
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and analytics
  3. Good security posture with HTTPS and security headers
  4. Privacy and cookie policies present and implemented
  5. No WHOIS data available due to registry restrictions
  6. No signs of malicious or adult content
  7. Extensive external linking to official club and partner sites
  8. Use of multiple third-party tracking and advertising services
Technical notes

Notes

The AFL website is built on a modern tech stack featuring React and JavaScript, supported by service workers for offline capabilities and performance optimization. It integrates multiple third-party analytics and marketing tools such as Chartbeat, Hotjar, New Relic, Google Tag Manager, and Adobe DTM, indicating a sophisticated approach to user behavior analysis and marketing. Hosting appears to be managed via Telstra and Akamai CDN, ensuring fast content delivery. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features, contributing to excellent user experience. Technical debt appears minimal, with opportunities to further modernize privacy and security disclosures.
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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