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Security report for core77.com

Core77, Inc. · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Core77, Inc. operates a well-established online industrial design magazine and resource platform targeting industrial designers and design professionals. The website offers a variety of services including news articles, company directories, job listings, design awards, and discussion forums, positioning itself as a key media player in the industrial design sector. The platform maintains a strong brand presence with consistent branding and a large newsletter subscriber base exceeding 240,000 designers. Technically, the website employs a modern technology stack including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA, and Facebook Pixel, ensuring robust user interaction and tracking capabilities. The site is mobile-optimized with good SEO and accessibility features, though some accessibility aspects could be improved. The CMS appears custom-built, supporting a rich content experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses reCAPTCHA to protect forms, with a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. However, the absence of explicit security headers and a published security policy or incident response contact represents an area for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website presents a moderate to high trust level with professional content and good privacy compliance. The missing WHOIS data slightly reduces domain trustworthiness, but the active and consistent online presence supports legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy, and adding a vulnerability disclosure mechanism.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 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

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 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 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 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 core77.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

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

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Full report

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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
20
Email security
60
DNS health
80
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
80
Average
55

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

Core77 holds a strong market position as a specialized media platform in the industrial design industry, serving a niche but global audience of design professionals and students. Its business model revolves around content publishing, advertising, and providing value-added services such as job boards and company directories. The partnership ecosystem includes related design job and directory platforms, enhancing its reach and service offerings. The company demonstrates growth potential through active community engagement and a large subscriber base. Revenue streams likely include advertising, sponsored content, and premium listings. The platform's competitive advantage lies in its focused content, community features, and established brand reputation within the design sector.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to mitigate automated abuse. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear cookie and privacy policies and user consent mechanisms. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and absence of a published security or incident response policy are gaps that could be exploited. No signs of malware, phishing, or exposed credentials were found. The site does not currently provide a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure channel, which limits transparency and responsiveness to security issues. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information on the website to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve security communication.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerable components are in use.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all visitors.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Core77, Inc.
Description
Magazine and resource offering calendar of events, firm listings, jobs section, forums, articles and competitions.
Key services
Industrial design news and articles, Company directory, Job listings, Design awards, Discussion forums, Guides and resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google reCAPTCHA v2 and v3, Facebook Pixel, DoubleClick for Publishers (Google Ad Manager), Google Fonts, Material Icons
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Consent management for cookies and data
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager (DoubleClick)
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics (implied via GTM)
Marketing tools
Google reCAPTCHA
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 active user engagement.
  2. No WAF or security blocking detected.
  3. WHOIS data is missing or privacy protected, limiting domain trust verification.
  4. Strong privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms implemented.
  5. Multiple social media and partner links indicate established media presence.
  6. Use of modern tracking and advertising technologies with transparency.
  7. No explicit security policy or incident response contact found.
  8. Forms use Google reCAPTCHA to prevent abuse.
  9. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities detected in HTML.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, and Google reCAPTCHA, integrated with advertising platforms like Google Ad Manager and Facebook Pixel for tracking and monetization. The site loads Google Fonts and Material Icons for consistent typography and iconography. The CMS appears custom or proprietary, supporting dynamic content such as blogs, forums, and directories. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, especially in mobile responsiveness and accessibility. The site uses multiple external domains for fonts, analytics, ads, and social media integration. No major technical debt or outdated technologies were detected, but security header implementation and performance tuning could be improved.
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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