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Security report for epd.de

Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd) · Media · Germany

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd) is a well-established, independent news agency affiliated with the Evangelical Church in Germany, providing high-quality news, photos, and videos focused on church, religion, ethics, culture, media, education, society, and social development. The agency operates a federated structure with regional offices and international correspondents, serving a broad media audience including newspapers, radio, TV, and online platforms. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and professional design. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 8, uses modern JavaScript libraries, and integrates a consent management platform to ensure GDPR compliance. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly. Hosting details are not explicit but domain registration is standard and consistent with the organization's profile. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, some recommended security headers are not explicitly detected and no public security policy or incident response information is provided. Privacy compliance is strong with clear privacy and cookie policies and active consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy, professional, and well-maintained, with no signs of malicious activity or content safety concerns. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy, and maintaining regular audits of third-party scripts.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  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 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';…

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Keep watching epd.de

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.

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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
77
Security headers
25
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
40
Average
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
  • 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

epd holds a strong market position as the oldest German news agency with a niche focus on church and social topics, supported by the Evangelical Church. Its business model centers on providing news and media services to a wide range of media outlets and specialized clients through subscription and service offerings. The federated structure with regional and international offices enables comprehensive coverage. Partnerships with related organizations like GEP and epd film strengthen its ecosystem. The agency's reputation and awards underscore its credibility and quality. Growth opportunities may include expanding digital services and multimedia content. The clear contact information and transparent service offerings support customer engagement and trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and a GDPR-compliant consent management platform. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No incident response or security contact information is publicly available, which could be a gap in transparency and readiness. The use of third-party scripts (Consentmanager.net, Twitter widgets) should be regularly audited to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers and publishing a security policy.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  4. Maintain and monitor GDPR compliance mechanisms, including cookie consent and privacy policy updates.
  5. Enhance performance monitoring and optimize hosting infrastructure if needed to improve loading speed.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd)
Description
Der Evangelische Pressedienst (epd) ist eine unabhängig arbeitende Nachrichtenagentur, die von der evangelischen Kirche getragen wird - seit mehr als 100 Jahren. Sie liefert Texte, Fotos und Videos aus Kirche und Religion, Ethik, Kultur, Medien und Bildung, Gesellschaft, Soziales und Entwicklung.
Key services
Agentur-Basisdienst, epd aktuell App, Wochenspiegel, epd bild (Bilderdienst), epd video, epd Archiv, Fachdienste (Film, Medien, Soziales, Dokumentation)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 8, JavaScript, Consentmanager.net (CMP), Twitter widgets
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • Consent management platform for GDPR compliance
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Consentmanager.net
Marketing tools
Consentmanager.net
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking mechanisms.
  2. Strong GDPR compliance with visible consent management platform.
  3. Professional media agency with clear contact information and regional presence.
  4. Use of Drupal CMS and modern web technologies.
  5. No security policy or incident response information publicly available.
  6. No visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data.
  7. No suspicious external domains or advertising networks detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 8 CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript and CSS for a responsive and accessible user experience. It integrates a consent management platform from Consentmanager.net for GDPR compliance and uses Twitter widgets for social media integration. The site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly with proper meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting details are not explicit but domain registration uses GoDaddy nameservers. Performance is moderate with potential for optimization. No critical technical debt or deprecated technologies detected.
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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