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Security report for africanews.com

Africanews · Media · 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

Africanews is a professional African news media platform providing latest breaking news, daily news, and specialized coverage in politics, business, sports, culture, and technology. The site offers live streaming and video on demand services, targeting a general audience interested in African and global news. The website demonstrates a consistent brand presence and good content quality with a structured layout and multiple news categories. Technically, the site uses modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and integrates Google Analytics and ad networks for monetization and tracking. Mobile optimization and SEO practices are good, though accessibility features are basic. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS implied but lacking visible security headers and explicit privacy or terms policies. WHOIS data is unavailable, raising some legitimacy concerns, but the professional content and social media presence support credibility. Overall, the site is a reliable news source with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security transparency.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of africanews.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching africanews.com

This scan found 21 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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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
72
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Africanews operates as a regional African news media entity focusing on delivering news content across multiple sectors including politics, business, sports, and culture. Its business model centers on content publishing and monetization through advertising and video services. The platform maintains a strong social media ecosystem to engage audiences and expand reach. The lack of visible company contact information and WHOIS data limits transparency but does not detract from its market presence. Growth indicators include active content updates and multimedia offerings. Partnerships with ad networks and tracking services indicate a monetization strategy reliant on advertising revenue.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS, ensuring encrypted communication, but lacks visible security headers such as Content Security Policy or HSTS, which are recommended for enhanced protection. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The site uses a privacy consent SDK, indicating some awareness of privacy regulations, but explicit privacy and cookie policies are not found, which may pose compliance risks. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are absent, limiting the site's readiness to handle security incidents. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved by implementing security headers, publishing clear policies, and establishing incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Add security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to enhance site security.
  3. Provide clear contact information including security incident response and vulnerability disclosure channels.
  4. Deploy a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve usability for all users and comply with standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Africanews
Description
Find out all about latest breaking news, daily news and hot news in Africa. African politics, African business, African sports, health and technology on, also available on VOD africanews.com
Key services
news publishing, video on demand (VOD), live news streaming
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Analytics, Google Tag Services, Privacy Center SDK, LightSlider, LightGallery, Perfect Scrollbar
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage (implied by og:url https)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of privacy consent SDK

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DFP, Duration Media
Tracking pixels
Grapeshot
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional African news media portal with multiple news categories and live streaming
  2. No WHOIS data available from queried source, possibly due to incorrect WHOIS server or domain not registered under .com
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in provided HTML
  4. Social media presence is strong with official Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Flipboard links
  5. Uses multiple JavaScript libraries and ad networks for content delivery and monetization
  6. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML content
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found
  8. No visible security headers in HTML source; SSL status unknown
  9. Content is safe for general audiences with no adult or questionable content
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript-based front end with libraries like jQuery, LightSlider, and LightGallery for UI components. Google Analytics and Google Tag Services are integrated for analytics and ad management. The site loads fonts from Google Fonts and uses a privacy consent SDK from privacy-center.org. Performance is moderate with lazy loading and asynchronous script loading. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design elements. No CMS or hosting provider information is explicitly detected. Technical risks include missing security headers and incomplete privacy compliance documentation.
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. 74/100Medium26 findingsView report
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