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Security report for digitaladvertisingalliance.org

Digital Advertising Alliance · Media · United States

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) operates as a non-profit organization focused on establishing and enforcing privacy standards within the digital advertising industry. It provides consumers with transparency and control over data collection practices through various tools and icon programs such as YourAdChoices, WebChoices, and AppChoices. The organization is led by major advertising and marketing trade associations, positioning it as a key industry player in privacy self-regulation. The website reflects this mission with comprehensive content, educational resources, and active communication channels including blogs and news releases. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 7 CMS, utilizing common web technologies such as jQuery, Google Analytics, and FontAwesome. It is hosted on SiteGround servers and employs HTTPS with anonymized IP tracking for privacy. The site is moderately optimized for performance and mobile devices, with good SEO and basic accessibility features. However, it lacks some modern security headers and a cookie consent mechanism, which are recommended for enhanced compliance and security. From a security perspective, the site demonstrates a solid posture with encrypted connections and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. The domain registration is consistent with the organization's profile, showing a stable and legitimate presence since 2014. No WAF or blocking mechanisms interfere with content access. Privacy policies are present and comprehensive, though cookie consent could be improved. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is found. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and aligned with its mission to promote responsible digital advertising practices. Strategic improvements in security headers, cookie consent, and contact transparency would further enhance its compliance and user trust.

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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection
    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: PostgreSQL

      Port 5432 (PostgreSQL) is publicly accessible - PostgreSQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to PostgreSQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching digitaladvertisingalliance.org

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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
62
Security headers
45
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
68
Average
53
After the cap
49

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 · found on this site
  • 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

DAA holds a strong market position as a non-profit self-regulatory body in the digital advertising ecosystem, backed by leading trade associations such as AAAA, AAF, ANA, BBB, IAB, and NAI. Its business model centers on providing privacy principles, consumer choice tools, and icon licensing to foster transparency and trust between advertisers and consumers. The organization targets advertisers, marketers, publishers, and privacy-conscious consumers. Revenue streams likely include licensing fees for icon usage and participation in self-regulatory programs. The website's partnership ecosystem is robust, linking to multiple industry associations and related initiatives. Growth indicators include active blog updates and recent news releases. The organization's operations emphasize compliance with evolving privacy regulations and technological changes in ad tech.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and anonymized IP tracking in analytics to protect user privacy. The domain is secured with clientTransferProhibited status, preventing unauthorized transfers. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options represents areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of explicit incident response contacts or security policy pages suggests limited transparency in security governance. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from enhanced security controls and clearer communication of security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to prevent DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement standard security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Publish explicit incident response and security policy pages with contact information for security issues.
  5. Regularly update Drupal core and third-party libraries to the latest versions to reduce vulnerability risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Digital Advertising Alliance
Description
The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) is an independent non-profit organization led by leading advertising and marketing trade associations that establishes and enforces responsible privacy practices across the digital advertising industry. It provides consumers with transparency and control over data collection for interest-based advertising across desktop and mobile environments.
Key services
Establishing and enforcing privacy principles, Providing consumer choice tools (YourAdChoices, WebChoices, AppChoices), Licensing icons for self-certification, Educational resources and enforcement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Analytics, Drupal 7, Colorbox, FontAwesome, Google Fonts
Frameworks
Drupal 7
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled with anonymized IP tracking in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of clientTransferProhibited domain status to prevent unauthorized transfers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established non-profit industry organization focused on digital advertising privacy.
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented with clear navigation.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on the homepage or main content.
  4. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected despite privacy policy presence.
  5. Uses Drupal 7 CMS with multiple third-party libraries and Google Analytics for tracking.
  6. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure found.
  7. WHOIS data is consistent and domain is actively maintained.
  8. Social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn is clearly linked.
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 7, a mature but aging CMS platform, with a tech stack including jQuery, Google Analytics, Colorbox, and FontAwesome. Hosting is provided by SiteGround, a reputable provider. The site uses multiple CSS stylesheets and responsive design techniques to support mobile devices. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of analytics scripts. Accessibility is basic, with skip links and some ARIA landmarks, but could be improved. SEO is supported by meta tags and structured navigation. Technical debt is present due to Drupal 7 usage, which is nearing end-of-life, suggesting a need for modernization. No critical technical risks were identified, but security enhancements and platform upgrades are advisable.
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. 49/100High36 findingsView report
  2. 49/100High28 findingsView report
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