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Security report for charleston-hub.com

Charleston Hub · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Charleston Hub is a niche media outlet providing news and updates focused on libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and subscription agents. The website serves a specialized audience within the publishing and library sectors, delivering industry news and insights. Technically, the site is built on WordPress using the Divi theme and incorporates common plugins such as MonsterInsights for analytics and Advanced Ads for advertising management. The site is well-structured with good SEO practices and mobile optimization. Security-wise, the site uses HTTPS and has implemented some best practices, but lacks certain security headers and a vulnerability disclosure mechanism. The absence of WHOIS registrant data raises concerns about domain legitimacy, although the site appears professionally maintained and active. Overall, the site presents moderate risk but would benefit from improved transparency and security enhancements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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 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 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 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 charleston-hub.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

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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
62
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
73

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

Charleston Hub occupies a specialized media niche targeting professionals in the library and publishing industries. Its business model revolves around content dissemination and advertising revenue. The site leverages social media channels to extend its reach and engages its audience with relevant industry news. The lack of explicit business registration and contact details limits full business credibility assessment. The site’s longevity since 2011 suggests established presence, but the missing WHOIS data is a discrepancy that warrants further investigation. Partnerships or subsidiaries are not evident from the data provided.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic to moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and no obvious exposed sensitive data. However, it lacks several recommended security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options, which could improve protection against common web attacks. The site does not provide a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy, which are important for responsible security management. The use of third-party analytics and advertising scripts introduces some privacy considerations, though an opt-out mechanism is implemented. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could be significantly improved with additional controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to enhance GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen security.
  3. Publish a security.txt file and establish a vulnerability disclosure process to improve security transparency.
  4. Investigate and clarify domain WHOIS information to resolve legitimacy concerns.
  5. Regularly audit and update all plugins and themes to mitigate vulnerabilities and maintain security hygiene.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Charleston Hub
Description
Against the Grain is your key to the latest news about libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and subscription agents.
Key services
Industry news, Publishing updates, Library sector information
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, MonsterInsights, MemberPress, Advanced Ads, Yoast SEO, Cloudflare (DNS prefetch), Google Fonts, WordPress, Divi Theme
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data detected
  • Use of Google Analytics with opt-out mechanism

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Advanced Ads
Marketing tools
MonsterInsights
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and not blocked by WAF
  2. No WHOIS data available, indicating possible privacy protection or unregistered domain
  3. Uses WordPress CMS with Divi theme and common plugins
  4. Has social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
  5. No explicit contact information or business registration details found
  6. Privacy policy not found, but cookie consent mechanism is present
  7. Good SEO and structured data implementation
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  9. No signs of adult or NSFW content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a mature and widely used CMS platform (WordPress) with a popular theme (Divi) and several well-known plugins for analytics, membership, and advertising. The technical implementation includes modern web fonts, structured data (JSON-LD), and SEO optimizations via Yoast SEO. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of analytics scripts and use of CDN-hosted fonts. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility features are basic and could be enhanced. Hosting provider details are not evident from the data. The site would benefit from performance tuning and enhanced accessibility compliance to improve user experience and technical robustness.
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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