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Security report for ctvnews.ca

CTVNews · Media · Canada

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

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

CTVNews is a leading Canadian news media organization providing comprehensive coverage of local, national, and international news. The website offers a rich mix of live updates, video content, and trusted reporting across multiple sectors including politics, health, business, and sports. Operated under Bell Media, CTVNews holds a strong market position as a trusted news source in Canada with a large audience base. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies such as React and Bootstrap, supported by a robust advertising and analytics infrastructure including Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, and Comscore. The site is well-optimized for mobile and accessibility, ensuring a positive user experience.

Scanned

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

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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  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 ctvnews.ca

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.

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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
72
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
69

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

CTVNews operates on an advertising-supported business model, targeting a broad general audience interested in news and current events. The company benefits from strong brand recognition and partnerships with other media outlets like CP24 and BNN Bloomberg. Its digital presence is supported by a mature technology stack and a comprehensive content strategy that includes video and live coverage. The absence of public WHOIS data is consistent with privacy protection practices common among large media companies. The site’s extensive use of third-party advertising and tracking services indicates a focus on monetization and audience analytics.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. However, there is no publicly available security policy or incident response information, and no security.txt file was found, which could enhance transparency and vulnerability management. The use of numerous third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate risks from external dependencies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response plan to improve transparency and trust.
  2. Implement and publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and advertising integrations for security vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance contact information with direct security or abuse reporting email addresses.
  5. Continue to monitor and optimize website performance and accessibility to maintain high user experience standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
CTVNews
Description
CTV News provides live updates on local, national, and international news, including trusted reporting on politics, health, business, sports and more.
Key services
News reporting, Video content, Live coverage, Mobile app
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Bootstrap 4.1.3, Optimizely, Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Google Tag Manager, Comscore, Chartbeat, Permutive, New Relic
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern JavaScript frameworks

Analytics and tracking

Services
Comscore, Chartbeat, Google Tag Manager, Permutive
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick, Magnite, Confiant, Nativo
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, Comscore, Chartbeat, Permutive, Tapad
Marketing tools
Optimizely, Queryly
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional Canadian news media outlet with extensive content and video coverage.
  2. No WHOIS data publicly available due to privacy protection by CIRA.
  3. Uses modern web technologies and multiple advertising and analytics services.
  4. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges detected.
  5. No explicit or adult content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
  6. Privacy and cookie policies are present and indicate GDPR compliance.
  7. Contact information is available via contact page but no direct emails or phone numbers found in HTML.
  8. Security headers and HTTPS are properly implemented.
  9. Advertising and tracking practices are extensive but transparent.
  10. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

CTVNews is built on a modern web infrastructure using React and Bootstrap for responsive design. The site integrates multiple advertising and analytics platforms, including Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Comscore, and Chartbeat, indicating a sophisticated monetization and data collection strategy. Hosting appears to leverage Akamai CDN services, contributing to moderate to fast performance. The site includes comprehensive SEO and accessibility features, with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine visibility. There is room for improvement in security transparency and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms.
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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