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Security report for capitalbnews.org

Capital B News · Non-profit · Canada

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Capital B News is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to reporting on stories about Black Americans at local and national levels. Founded in 2020, it operates with regional branches such as Capital B Atlanta and Capital B Gary, focusing on investigative journalism and accessible news content. The organization relies on donations and memberships to sustain its operations, emphasizing free access to important information. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the Newspack theme and plugins, optimized for SEO and performance with integrations like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled and use of reCAPTCHA on forms, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not explicitly detected. Privacy compliance is weak due to the absence of privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. Overall, the site presents a professional and trustworthy image but would benefit from enhanced privacy and security disclosures.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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 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"

    • 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 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 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 capitalbnews.org

This scan found 24 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
42
Security headers
15
Email security
87
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
65

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

Capital B News occupies a niche market as a Black-led nonprofit media outlet, providing unique content not widely covered by mainstream media. Its business model centers on nonprofit funding through donations, memberships, and sponsored content partnerships. The presence of regional sites indicates a strategy to localize content and expand reach. The organization maintains active social media channels to engage its audience. The partnership with fundjournalism.org for donations and with cultural heritage organizations for sponsored content reflects a diversified funding and partnership ecosystem. Growth indicators include active content publishing, newsletter subscriptions, and community engagement. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to improve transparency and compliance to strengthen donor and reader trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms from abuse. However, the lack of DNSSEC and absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options indicate room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The absence of published security policies or incident response plans suggests limited formal security governance. Compliance with GDPR or other privacy regulations is not evident, which could pose risks especially given the data collection via newsletter forms. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a nonprofit media site but should be enhanced to mitigate risks and improve stakeholder confidence.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to comply with GDPR and other regulations.
  3. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to harden the website against common attacks.
  4. Develop and publish a security policy and incident response plan to demonstrate security governance and readiness.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and scripts to minimize vulnerabilities and maintain performance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Capital B News
Description
Capital B is a local and national nonprofit news organization reporting on stories you won’t find anywhere else.
Key services
Investigative journalism, News reporting, Newsletter distribution
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO Premium, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Cloudflare DNS, Newspack Blocks, Perfmatters, MediaElement.js
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on newsletter forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager (DoubleClick)
Tracking pixels
Google reCAPTCHA
Marketing tools
Yoast SEO, Newspack Blocks, Perfmatters
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a nonprofit news organization focused on Black American issues.
  2. Content is rich with multiple articles, newsletters, and regional branches.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in the provided content.
  4. Multiple newsletter subscription forms with email collection and reCAPTCHA present.
  5. Social media presence is strong with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, and Bluesky links.
  6. Uses WordPress with Newspack theme and plugins, optimized for SEO and performance.
  7. No phone numbers or physical addresses explicitly found in the content.
  8. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  9. HTTPS is enabled; no DNSSEC configured.
  10. Advertising via Google Ad Manager and tracking via Google Analytics detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress infrastructure using the Newspack theme and associated plugins, which are designed for news organizations. It integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, and Google reCAPTCHA for form security. The site uses Cloudflare DNS and Tucows as registrar, but DNSSEC is not enabled. Performance optimizations include lazy loading and preloading of images, and use of Perfmatters plugin for speed improvements. The site is mobile responsive and SEO optimized with Yoast SEO Premium. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts and lack of advanced security headers. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and privacy compliance features.
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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