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Security report for afr.com

The Australian Financial Review · Media · Australia

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

87/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Australian Financial Review (afr.com) is a leading Australian financial news publisher providing real-time updates on business, finance, investment, and politics. It serves a professional audience of business leaders and investors with a subscription-based model and a reputation for independent, award-winning journalism. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with a modern tech stack including React, Google Analytics 4, and multiple advertising and tracking technologies. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, supporting strong privacy practices. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and incident response policies could be improved. Overall, afr.com is a professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained financial news platform with extensive content and good user experience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 afr.com

This scan found 12 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.

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  • 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
90
Security headers
90
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
87

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 afr.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,210
Employees
0
Customers
1,164
Third parties
46
Weak passwords
18%

12 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 afr.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

afr.com holds a strong market position as a premier source of financial news in Australia, targeting business and investor communities. Its business model relies on subscription revenue and advertising, supported by a robust content ecosystem including market data, events, and awards. The site integrates multiple third-party analytics and advertising platforms, indicating a sophisticated marketing and monetization strategy. The absence of WHOIS data is unusual but likely due to registry limitations rather than privacy concerns. No suspicious domains or partners were identified. The site’s branding and content quality reinforce its credibility and market leadership.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a presumably strong SSL configuration and uses multiple security best practices such as secure forms and no exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options were not confirmed in the provided data and should be verified. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is publicly available, which is a gap in transparency. The extensive use of third-party tracking scripts requires ongoing monitoring to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from enhanced transparency and header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Verify and explicitly implement security headers such as CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response policy to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies for security vulnerabilities.
  4. Provide explicit security contact information for incident reporting.
  5. Enhance documentation of data retention policies and privacy compliance measures.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Australian Financial Review
Description
The Australian Financial Review reports the latest news from business, finance, investment and politics, updated in real time. It has a reputation for independent, award-winning journalism and is essential reading for the business and investor community.
Key services
business news, finance news, investment news, political news, market data, events, lists and awards
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, DoubleClick, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Facebook Pixel, Reddit Pixel, Chartbeat, Snowplow Analytics, Piano subscription platform, Hotjar, CryptoJS
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure analytics and tracking scripts
  • Subscription and login forms present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4, Chartbeat, Snowplow Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google AdSense, DoubleClick, Google Ad Manager, Nine ADC
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight Tag, Facebook Pixel, Reddit Pixel, Chartbeat, Hotjar, Snowplow Analytics
Marketing tools
Piano subscription platform
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major Australian financial news portal with extensive content and professional design.
  2. No WHOIS data available, possibly due to registry or query limitations.
  3. Strong use of modern analytics and advertising technologies.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present and comprehensive.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided content.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy detected.
  7. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  8. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  9. Content is safe and appropriate for general audiences.
  10. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

afr.com uses a modern React-based frontend with integration of multiple analytics and advertising technologies including Google Tag Manager, GA4, Chartbeat, Snowplow, Hotjar, and Piano subscription platform. The site is mobile optimized with good accessibility and SEO practices. Performance is moderate, likely due to the number of third-party scripts. No CMS or hosting provider was explicitly identified. The technical infrastructure supports a high-quality user experience but should be monitored for potential performance impacts from extensive tracking scripts.
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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