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Security report for coloradosun.com

The Colorado Sun PBC · Media · United States

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

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Colorado Sun is a well-established regional news organization focused on delivering comprehensive coverage of Colorado-related topics including politics, climate, water, housing, and business. Founded in 2018, it operates as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) and offers a membership-based business model with premium newsletters and events. The website demonstrates a strong market position as a trusted news source with a clear editorial mission and transparent policies. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern stack including Yoast SEO, Jetpack, and Google Analytics, hosted on Amazon AWS infrastructure. The site is fast, mobile-optimized, and accessible, with excellent SEO practices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced, security headers present, and no visible vulnerabilities, though DNSSEC is not enabled. Privacy compliance is good but could be improved by adding a cookie consent mechanism and dedicated terms of service. Contact information is clearly provided, enhancing business credibility. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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 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 coloradosun.com

This scan found 27 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
42
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
63

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

The Colorado Sun targets Colorado residents and stakeholders interested in local news and issues. Its business model relies on memberships and subscriptions, supplemented by advertising and fundraising. The company leverages partnerships with various social media platforms and fundraising tools to expand reach and revenue. The editorial transparency and adherence to trust indicators like The Trust Project membership position it competitively in the regional media landscape. Growth indicators include multiple newsletters and events, signaling diversified engagement channels. The company maintains a medium size with a focused regional scope.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implemented. The domain registration status clientTransferProhibited adds protection against unauthorized transfers. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the absence of DNSSEC and a formal vulnerability disclosure policy are minor gaps. No incident response contacts or security@ emails were found, which could be improved to enhance security readiness. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced DNS security and formalized security communication channels.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
  3. Publish a dedicated terms of service page to clarify user agreements and legal protections.
  4. Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible security reporting.
  5. Add incident response contact information (e.g., security@coloradosun.com) to improve security communication and readiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Colorado Sun PBC
Description
The Colorado Sun is an award-winning news outlet that covers all of Colorado — from water and climate to politics and business.
Key services
News reporting, Newsletters, Events, Membership subscriptions
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO, Jetpack, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Fundraise Up, Newspack plugins, OneSignal, DoubleClick for Publishers
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security plugins (Jetpack)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Parsely
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Parsely
Marketing tools
Fundraise Up, OneSignal
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional regional news outlet focused on Colorado
  2. Strong editorial policies and transparency with ethics, corrections, and diversity policies
  3. Uses modern WordPress-based technology stack with multiple plugins for SEO, ads, and fundraising
  4. No visible security or privacy red flags
  5. Lacks explicit cookie consent mechanism
  6. No dedicated terms of service or vulnerability disclosure pages found
  7. Contact information is clearly provided with company email and phone
  8. Social media presence is extensive and consistent with brand
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a robust WordPress platform with a comprehensive set of plugins for SEO, analytics, advertising, and fundraising. Hosting is on Amazon AWS with media assets served from S3 buckets, ensuring scalability and performance. The site uses modern front-end technologies and is optimized for mobile devices with responsive design. SEO is enhanced by Yoast SEO Premium and structured data (JSON-LD) for rich snippets. Accessibility features are present but could be further audited for compliance. Performance is fast with preloading of key images and asynchronous loading of scripts. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting the business goals effectively.
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. 62/100Medium36 findingsView report
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