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Security report for comicsgrid.com

Open Library of Humanities · Education · N/a

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

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Comics Grid is a specialized academic journal dedicated to comics scholarship, published as a diamond open-access journal by the reputable Open Library of Humanities. It serves a niche audience of researchers, academics, and enthusiasts in the humanities and comics studies fields. The website offers peer-reviewed articles, special collections, and editorial content with a clear and professional presentation. The business model focuses on open-access academic publishing, emphasizing accessibility and scholarly rigor. Technically, the website employs modern front-end technologies including Materialize CSS, jQuery, and Font Awesome, with a likely Open Journal Systems CMS backend. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though performance is moderate. Security practices include HTTPS usage and CSRF protection, but lack visible security headers and cookie consent mechanisms, which are recommended for compliance and enhanced security. Security posture is generally good with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data, but the absence of WHOIS data for the domain raises minor concerns about domain registration transparency. The site maintains high trustworthiness through its affiliation with Open Library of Humanities and clear editorial policies. Overall, the risk is low, but improvements in privacy compliance and security headers would strengthen the posture. Strategic recommendations include implementing cookie consent for GDPR compliance, publishing a security policy and incident response contacts, adding security headers, and clarifying domain registration information to enhance trust and transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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 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 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 comicsgrid.com

This scan found 22 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

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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
50
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

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 Comics Grid occupies a niche academic market focused on comics scholarship, leveraging a diamond open-access publishing model that removes paywalls for readers and authors. Its partnership with Open Library of Humanities provides credibility and infrastructure support. The journal targets academics, researchers, and students interested in comics studies, humanities, and cultural research. Revenue streams likely include institutional support and grants rather than direct sales. The website's editorial and submission infrastructure supports growth and community engagement. The social media presence across multiple platforms aids outreach and audience building. The lack of direct contact emails and phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels via web forms, typical in academic publishing. The absence of cookie consent and security policies indicates areas for compliance improvement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and CSRF tokens are implemented in forms, indicating awareness of common web security practices. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness. GDPR compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism. The missing WHOIS data for the domain is a concern for domain legitimacy verification but is mitigated by the reputable publisher association. Overall, the security posture is adequate but can be improved with better headers, policies, and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  2. Add and configure security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Clarify domain registration details or use WHOIS privacy protection with transparent justification to improve trust.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Open Library of Humanities
Description
Researcher-led, peer-reviewed, Diamond open-access journal published by Open Library of Humanities focusing on comics scholarship.
Key services
Peer-reviewed academic articles, Special collections, News and editorial content, Submission platform for authors
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Materialize CSS, jQuery, Font Awesome, Google Fonts, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript
Frameworks
Materialize CSS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by URL https://)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • CSRF token present in language form

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a scholarly open-access journal focused on comics studies.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and professionally presented.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible on homepage; contact via form.
  5. No cookie consent banner detected despite GDPR relevance.
  6. No explicit security headers detected in HTML content.
  7. WHOIS data missing, which reduces trust but site affiliation with Open Library of Humanities mitigates concerns.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern front-end stack with Materialize CSS framework, jQuery, Font Awesome icons, and Google Fonts, providing a responsive and accessible user interface. The likely use of Open Journal Systems CMS supports academic publishing workflows. Performance is moderate, with some reliance on external CDNs for assets. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are present, enhancing usability. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. However, the site lacks advanced security headers and cookie consent mechanisms, which are important for compliance and security. The WHOIS data absence suggests a need for domain registration transparency. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from enhanced security and privacy 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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