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Security report for ds1.com

Design Studio One · Technology · United States

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Design Studio One is a small, established web design and development company based in Atlanta, with over 20 years of experience delivering custom website solutions and digital marketing services. The company targets businesses in the Metro Atlanta area, offering award-winning design, WordPress development, and content management services. The website is professionally designed using WordPress with the Avada theme and includes modern SEO and spam protection technologies. However, the absence of WHOIS registration data for the domain www.ds1.com raises concerns about domain legitimacy and consistency with the claimed business history. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS and reCAPTCHA implemented, but lacks explicit security policies and incident response information. Privacy compliance is minimal, with no visible privacy or cookie policies. Overall, the site presents a professional front but would benefit from improved transparency and compliance documentation.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

9 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

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

Keep watching ds1.com

This scan found 26 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
72
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
48

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

The company positions itself as a trusted local leader in web design and development with a focus on custom solutions tailored to client needs. Its business model revolves around service delivery to small and medium businesses, leveraging WordPress and digital marketing tools. The firm maintains a portfolio showcasing award-winning work, indicating a competitive advantage in design quality. Contact channels are clear and professional, supporting client engagement. The lack of WHOIS data and privacy policies suggests areas for operational improvement. No partnerships or subsidiaries were identified from the website content.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect forms from spam and abuse, indicating a baseline security awareness. However, no security headers were detected, and there is no public security policy or incident response contact information, which are important for transparency and trust. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the HTML content. The site should enhance its security posture by implementing recommended HTTP security headers, publishing security policies, and establishing incident response contacts to improve trustworthiness and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to enhance security posture.
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to increase transparency and trust.
  4. Verify and update WHOIS domain registration information to ensure consistency with business claims.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet compliance standards and improve user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Design Studio One Consulting, Inc.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Design Studio One
Description
Atlanta web design, website updates, & WordPress development company delivering award-winning web design in Metro Atlanta. Specializes in custom website solutions for businesses of all sizes, focusing on reflecting unique business identity and vision.
Key services
Custom mobile-responsive websites, Website updates and redesigns, WordPress development, Social media marketing, Website and blog content management
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, Slider Revolution, Google reCAPTCHA, jQuery, Bootstrap, Fusion Builder
Frameworks
Avada Theme Framework
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA v3 implemented on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

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 professional design.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy pages detected.
  3. Contact information is clearly presented with multiple channels.
  4. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  5. WHOIS data is missing or domain is unregistered, which is a significant concern.
  6. Uses modern WordPress technologies and SEO best practices.
  7. Google reCAPTCHA v3 is implemented for spam protection on forms.
  8. No suspicious or malicious indicators found in content or scripts.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress using the Avada theme framework, incorporating popular plugins such as Yoast SEO and Slider Revolution. It uses modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery and Bootstrap for UI components and responsiveness. Google Analytics and Tag Manager are used for tracking, and Google reCAPTCHA v3 is implemented for spam protection. The site loads resources from trusted CDNs and Google domains, indicating a modern and maintainable tech stack. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization. There is room for improvement in accessibility and security header implementation.
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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