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Security report for connectingafrica.com

Connecting Africa · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Connecting Africa is a reputable online news portal focused on technology and telecommunications developments across Africa. It operates under the umbrella of Informa PLC, a well-established global information services company. The website provides daily news coverage on mobile innovations, fintech, startups, and business news relevant to the African digital landscape, targeting professionals, investors, and stakeholders in the tech and telecom sectors. The platform maintains a consistent brand identity and offers a user-friendly experience with good content relevance and navigation. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies including React, New Relic monitoring, Google Tag Manager, and a consent management platform to ensure performance, analytics, and privacy compliance. The site is mobile-optimized and employs standard advertising and tracking services typical for media outlets. Privacy and cookie policies are clearly presented, reflecting GDPR compliance and user consent mechanisms. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and integrates monitoring tools but lacks explicit published security policies or incident response contacts. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The absence of WHOIS registration data reduces transparency but is offset by the clear association with Informa PLC, enhancing trustworthiness. Overall, Connecting Africa presents a solid digital presence with good content quality, technical implementation, and privacy compliance. Strategic improvements include publishing explicit security policies, incident response information, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms to further enhance security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 100 · Low
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. 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 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 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 connectingafrica.com

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

€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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
35
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Connecting Africa holds a strong market position as a trusted news source within the African technology and telecommunications sectors. Its business model centers on content publishing and media services, supported by advertising and partnerships. The platform targets a professional audience including telecom operators, fintech companies, startups, and investors. The association with Informa PLC provides significant competitive advantage through brand recognition and resource backing. The website's content strategy emphasizes topical relevance and timely reporting, supporting audience engagement and growth. Partnerships with social media platforms and integration of marketing tools indicate a mature digital marketing approach. The lack of direct contact information suggests a focus on content delivery rather than direct sales or support via the website.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security posture with HTTPS enforcement and integration of monitoring and consent management technologies. However, the absence of explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure channels represents gaps in transparency and readiness. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were identified in the analyzed content. The use of third-party scripts is standard but requires ongoing auditing to mitigate supply chain risks. Privacy compliance is well addressed through visible policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the security maturity is adequate for a media platform but could be enhanced by formalizing security governance documentation and communication.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  4. Conduct regular third-party script audits to identify and mitigate potential supply chain risks.
  5. Enhance WHOIS transparency or provide domain registration details to improve trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Informa PLC
Registration number
8860726
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Connecting Africa
Description
Connecting Africa is a trusted technology & telecommunications news source reporting on mobile innovations, fintech, startups, and business news in Africa.
Key services
Technology news reporting, Telecommunications news, Coverage of mobile innovations, Fintech news, Startup ecosystem updates, Business news in Africa's tech and telecom sectors
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (implied by modulepreload and JS assets), New Relic monitoring scripts, Google Tag Manager, Facebook SDK, Transcend Consent Management, DoubleClick Ads, Google Fonts
Frameworks
React (likely), New Relic Browser Agent
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of consent management platform
  • No exposed sensitive data found in HTML
  • Use of security monitoring (New Relic)

Analytics and tracking

Services
New Relic, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Facebook SDK, Transcend Consent Management
Marketing tools
Facebook SDK
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected.
  2. Strong branding and consistent design aligned with parent company Informa PLC.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  4. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent management.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main pages.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, reducing transparency but mitigated by corporate association.
  7. Advertising and tracking scripts are present but standard for media sites.
  8. No security policy or incident response contacts explicitly published.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack, likely using React and Contentstack CMS, supported by New Relic for performance monitoring and Google Tag Manager for analytics. It employs a consent management platform to comply with privacy regulations. The site loads multiple JavaScript modules asynchronously and uses CDN-hosted fonts and assets to optimize performance. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well implemented. The presence of multiple social media integrations and advertising scripts is typical for a media outlet. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in load times and resource optimization. The technical infrastructure supports a professional and scalable digital presence.
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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