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Security report for commonsense.org

Common Sense Media · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in DNS health, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Common Sense Media is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to making the digital world safer and healthier for children and families. Their services include media ratings, educational resources, advocacy for tech accountability, and research on digital well-being. The organization targets families, educators, and policymakers, positioning itself as a trusted authority in child digital safety and education. The website reflects a mature digital presence with a professional design, clear navigation, and comprehensive content tailored to its audience. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with PHP 8.3.26, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and OneTrust for consent management. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and employs security best practices such as HTTPS, CAPTCHA on forms, and content security policies. Performance is moderate, with CDN usage enhancing delivery. Security posture is strong with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies, GDPR compliance indicators, and user consent mechanisms. However, explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not present and could be improved. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance suitable for a nonprofit organization focused on child safety and education. The lack of WHOIS data is likely due to privacy protection, which is justified for this business type. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity were detected.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • Critical

      DNS Resolution Failed

      Unable to resolve domain A records

      What to do: Verify domain is properly configured and not expired

  2. 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"

  3. 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

  4. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching commonsense.org

This scan found 18 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
75
Security headers
65
Email security
80
DNS health
55
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
74

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention commonsense.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,570
Employees
0
Customers
1,511
Third parties
59
Weak passwords
9%

6 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for commonsense.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Common Sense Media holds a strong market position as a nonprofit leader in digital safety and education for children. Their business model revolves around nonprofit funding, memberships, donations, and partnerships. The organization serves a broad audience including families, educators, and policymakers, providing trusted media ratings, educational curricula, and advocacy. Their extensive media presence and partnerships with major outlets enhance their credibility and reach. The website content and structure support their mission effectively, with clear calls to action for joining and donating. Growth indicators include active research publications and educational program expansions. The partnership ecosystem includes media outlets and educational institutions, with no detected subsidiaries or parent companies. The organization maintains a consistent brand and messaging strategy across digital channels.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced, use of security headers, and CAPTCHA integration to protect forms. Consent management via OneTrust ensures compliance with privacy regulations. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. However, the absence of a public security policy, incident response information, or vulnerability disclosure program represents a compliance gap. The organization should consider publishing these documents to enhance transparency and readiness. Overall, the security culture appears strong but could benefit from formalized public documentation and contact channels for security incidents.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide contact information for a Data Protection Officer or security incident response team.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies for vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by detailing data retention policies and user data handling.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Common Sense Media
Description
Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization working to make the digital world healthier, safer, accessible, and engaging for kids and families.
Key services
Media ratings and guidance, Educational resources and curriculum, Advocacy for tech accountability and child safety, Research on media use and digital well-being
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, PHP 8.3.26, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, OneTrust Consent Management, mtCaptcha
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of CAPTCHA (mtCaptcha) on forms
  • Consent management via OneTrust
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Amplitude (implied by script)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
OneTrust Consent Management
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed nonprofit platform focused on child digital safety and education.
  2. Strong presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent management.
  3. Multiple external trusted domains and media logos indicate high trust.
  4. No signs of adult or inappropriate content.
  5. No WHOIS data available, likely due to privacy protection.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and security best practices.
  7. No visible security or compliance policy pages beyond privacy and cookie policies.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS with PHP 8.3.26 backend, indicating up-to-date infrastructure. Use of Google Tag Manager and Analytics supports robust data collection and marketing insights. OneTrust integration provides comprehensive consent management. The site uses CDN services (Cloudfront) for content delivery, improving performance and availability. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well implemented, contributing to a positive user experience. No critical technical debt or outdated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to improve performance metrics and implement advanced security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting.
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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