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Security report for economictimes.com

The Economic Times · Media · India

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Economic Times is a leading Indian business news publication operated under Times Internet Limited. It provides comprehensive business, financial, and stock market news targeted at investors, business professionals, and the general public interested in economic developments. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with extensive use of advertising networks and tracking technologies, supported by a robust consent management platform compliant with GDPR and IAB TCF standards. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including Google Analytics and Google Fonts, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and privacy controls, though explicit security headers could be improved. The absence of WHOIS data is notable but likely due to query limitations or privacy protections, not detracting from the site's legitimacy given its established brand and parent company. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

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. 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

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

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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
95
Security headers
50
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
79

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 Economic Times holds a strong market position as a premier source of business news in India, leveraging a business model based on advertising revenue. Its target audience includes investors and professionals seeking timely financial information. The company benefits from its association with Times Internet Limited, a major digital media conglomerate. The site integrates multiple advertising and retargeting networks, indicating a sophisticated monetization strategy. Growth indicators include extensive third-party partnerships and a comprehensive consent management framework. The business ecosystem is supported by a wide range of ad tech vendors, enhancing revenue streams and audience insights.

Security posture

The website exhibits a good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and a consent management platform ensuring user privacy compliance. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. However, some standard security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options were not explicitly observed and should be implemented to enhance protection against clickjacking and MIME sniffing attacks. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly visible, suggesting room for improvement in transparency. Overall, the site aligns well with GDPR requirements and industry best practices for data protection.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly serve security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Enhance visibility and accessibility of security policies and incident response contacts to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and ad vendors to mitigate risks from external dependencies.
  4. Maintain and update the consent management platform to ensure ongoing compliance with evolving privacy regulations.
  5. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Economic Times
Description
Economic Times India's Leading Business Newspaper offers Business News, Financial news, Stock, Share Market News, Economy News, Loans & Banking News, Live Stock 3s and News & Investment analysis on Mutual Funds, Gold, Forex and Real Estate.
Key services
Business news, Financial news, Stock market updates, Investment analysis, Economy news
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Fonts, Google DoubleClick, IAB Transparency and Consent Framework, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Consent management for cookies and tracking
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, VDX.tv, Roq.ad GmbH, Index Exchange Inc., Quantcast, BeeswaxIO Corporation, Sovrn, Inc., Adikteev, RTB House S.A., The UK Trade Desk Ltd, Nexxen Inc., Epsilon, Yahoo EMEA Limited, ADventori SAS, Triple Lift, Inc., Xandr, Inc.
Tracking pixels
Google Ads
Marketing tools
Google Ads, Consent Management Platform (IAB TCF)
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an interstitial landing page with a 10-second redirect to main site
  2. Contains a consent management platform compliant with IAB TCF
  3. Extensive use of third-party ad and tracking vendors
  4. No direct contact information or forms found on this interstitial page
  5. No WHOIS data available from provided raw output
  6. Site uses HTTPS and modern web fonts
  7. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including Google Analytics for traffic analysis, Google Fonts for typography, and Google DoubleClick for advertising. The presence of an IAB Transparency and Consent Framework implementation indicates advanced privacy management. Performance is moderate with some large ad scripts that may impact load times. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design elements and accessibility considerations. No CMS was explicitly detected from the provided content. Hosting details are not directly available but likely managed by Times Internet or a major cloud provider. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party ad networks which require continuous monitoring for security and privacy compliance.
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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