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Security report for buzzfeed.com

BuzzFeed, Inc. · Media · United States

Partial score · DNS & email only

75/100

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

BuzzFeed, Inc. is a leading digital media and entertainment company providing a wide range of content including breaking news, quizzes, videos, celebrity news, and recipes. The company targets a general audience with a business model primarily based on advertising revenue and content publishing. BuzzFeed holds a strong market position as a popular and trusted media brand with consistent branding and high-quality content. Technically, the website employs modern technologies such as Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Amazon Ads, with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, although explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly disclosed. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations including GDPR. The absence of WHOIS data is likely due to privacy or registry restrictions and does not detract from the site's legitimacy.

Scanned

3 of 7 checks could not complete. The site may be unreachable or blocking automated scans, so the results below cover only what could be checked. Try a rescan later.

NIS2 and GDPR posture

NIS2 outside view
Not assessed
GDPR outside view
Not assessed

Both readouts depend on the site's pages, which could not be loaded in this scan.

Priority findings

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 buzzfeed.com

This scan found 9 issues across 4 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
82
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
Average
88
After the cap
75

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • GDPR outside view: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

BuzzFeed operates in the media sector with a large organizational size and a broad target audience. Its competitive advantage lies in its diversified content offerings and strong digital presence. Revenue streams are primarily advertising-based, supported by partnerships with major ad networks like Amazon Ads and DoubleClick. The company maintains an active social media presence and uses advanced marketing and analytics tools to optimize user engagement and monetization. Strategic observations include the need to enhance transparency around security policies and incident response to further strengthen trust. BuzzFeed's ecosystem includes various content verticals and regional sites, although no subsidiaries or parent companies were identified in the data.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and use of security best practices such as asynchronous loading of analytics scripts and no exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options were not confirmed in the provided data. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected. The lack of publicly available security policy and incident response pages suggests room for improvement in transparency and readiness. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from enhanced documentation and header implementation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and user trust.
  2. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and ad networks to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance data retention policy disclosures related to analytics and user data.
  5. Maintain and update WHOIS information publicly if possible to improve domain registration transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
BuzzFeed, Inc.
Description
BuzzFeed has breaking news, vital journalism, quizzes, videos, celeb news, Tasty food videos, recipes, DIY hacks, and all the trending buzz you’ll want to share with your friends.
Key services
News, Entertainment, Quizzes, Video content, Recipes, DIY hacks
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, DoubleClick, Amazon Ads, React (implied by react-slideshow-container class), Proxima Nova font, Calistoga font
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Analytics with async scripts
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ads, DoubleClick
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and professional design.
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  3. WHOIS data is unavailable, limiting domain registration analysis.
  4. Strong use of advertising and analytics technologies.
  5. Privacy and cookie policies are present and comprehensive.
  6. No explicit security or incident response pages found.
  7. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities detected.
Technical notes

Notes

BuzzFeed's website uses a modern technology stack including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Amazon Ads for advertising and tracking. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and uses custom fonts for branding consistency. Performance is moderate with asynchronous script loading to improve speed. The site lacks explicit CMS identification but likely uses a custom or proprietary platform. Accessibility and SEO optimizations are good, supporting a positive user experience. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require ongoing security monitoring. Opportunities exist to improve security header implementation and enhance transparency around hosting and infrastructure.
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. 81/100 −3Low22 findingsView report
  2. 84/100 +5Low22 findingsView report
  3. 79/100Low20 findingsView report
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