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Security report for deadline.com

Deadline · Media · United States

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Deadline.com is a well-established entertainment news website founded in 1995 and owned by Penske Media Corporation. It specializes in breaking Hollywood and media news with timely and unfiltered analysis. The site targets a general audience interested in entertainment industry updates and maintains a strong market position as a leading media news source. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and OneTrust for cookie consent, hosted on AWS infrastructure. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices, although accessibility features are basic. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled and domain transfer protections in place, but lacks DNSSEC and security headers. Privacy compliance is partial, with cookie consent implemented but no explicit privacy policy or terms of service detected in the provided content. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 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

3 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"

  2. 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
    • 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 deadline.com

This scan found 19 issues across 5 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
42
Security headers
45
Email security
90
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
75

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 deadline.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
238
Employees
0
Customers
168
Third parties
70
Weak passwords
22%

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 deadline.com.

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

Deadline operates in the media sector focusing on entertainment news. Its business model revolves around content publishing, advertising revenue, and possibly affiliate marketing through ad networks like Google DoubleClick. The company benefits from a strong brand and long domain history, indicating market stability and trust. The target customers are entertainment consumers and industry professionals. The site integrates with major ad and analytics platforms, suggesting a mature digital marketing ecosystem. No direct contact or security policy information was found, which could be improved to enhance transparency. The parent company, Penske Media Corporation, is a significant player in media, supporting Deadline's market position.

Security posture

The website uses HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and has domain transfer protections enabled. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended security enhancement. No explicit security headers were detected in the provided content, which could improve protection against common web attacks. The site uses cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR principles but lacks visible privacy policy and incident response information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the analysis. The security score is moderate to good, but improvements in DNS security and security headers are advised. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are absent, representing compliance gaps.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service accessible from the homepage.
  3. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Provide clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure information, including a security.txt file.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Deadline
Description
Deadline.com is always the first to break up-to-the-minute entertainment, Hollywood and media news, with an unfiltered, no-holds-barred analysis of events.
Key services
entertainment news, Hollywood news, media news, event analysis
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent, AWS DNS, Typekit Fonts
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Client Transfer Prohibited domain status
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, BlogHer Ads
Tracking pixels
OneTrust Cookie Consent
Marketing tools
OneTrust
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional entertainment news portal with a long history.
  2. Uses WordPress CMS with modern web technologies.
  3. Implements cookie consent and Google Tag Manager for analytics.
  4. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found in the provided content.
  5. No direct contact information or security policy pages detected.
  6. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; content fully accessible.
  7. Advertising and tracking practices are standard for media websites.
  8. No adult or NSFW content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS, utilizing jQuery and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking. Fonts are served via Adobe Typekit. Hosting is on AWS infrastructure as indicated by DNS nameservers. The site preloads fonts and scripts for performance optimization. Cookie consent is managed via OneTrust. The site shows moderate performance and good mobile optimization. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured data. No critical technical debt or outdated libraries were detected. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and DNS security. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and supports the business needs effectively.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 75/100Medium27 findingsView report
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