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Security report for epochtimes.bg

Епок Медия Груп - България · Media · Bulgaria

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Epoch Times Bulgaria is an independent Bulgarian news media outlet providing fact-based, unbiased news free from governmental, corporate, or political influence. The website targets Bulgarian-speaking audiences interested in national and international news, culture, science, and lifestyle. Established around 2019, it operates primarily as an online news publisher with a medium-sized digital presence. The company uses WordPress CMS with modern plugins and SEO tools to maintain a professional and accessible platform. Hosting is provided by DigitalOcean, ensuring reliable infrastructure and performance. The site employs HTTPS and standard security headers, reflecting a good security posture, though it lacks some advanced security policies and incident response disclosures. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no visible cookie consent mechanism. Advertising and analytics are managed through common platforms such as Facebook Pixel and Google Tag Manager. Overall, the website demonstrates a solid business and technical foundation with room for improvement in privacy and security transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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. 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 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

  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 epochtimes.bg

This scan found 28 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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  • 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
15
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
10
Average
45

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 an independent media source in Bulgaria, focusing on delivering unbiased news. Its business model revolves around digital news publishing, monetized likely through advertising and donations (indicated by GiveWP plugin usage). The target audience includes Bulgarian readers interested in a broad range of topics from local to global news. The site maintains consistent branding and good content quality, supported by structured data and social media integration. Partnerships or subsidiaries are not evident, and the domain registration is privacy protected, which is common for media entities. The company benefits from a modern technology stack and a professional digital presence, supporting growth and audience engagement.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and includes several important security headers, contributing to a secure browsing experience. There is no evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries in the provided content. However, the absence of a full Content-Security-Policy header and lack of a security.txt file or explicit incident response contact information indicate areas for improvement. The site does not implement a cookie consent mechanism, which is a compliance gap under GDPR. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting more comprehensive security policies and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and improve user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a security.txt file and provide clear incident response contact information.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and plugins for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Enhance privacy policy details to include data retention and user rights information.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Епок Медия Груп - България
Description
Независимо отразяване, базиранo на факти, освободено от влиянието на правителства, корпорации и политически сили.
Key services
News publishing, Online journalism
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, jQuery, Elementor, GiveWP, Advanced Ads, Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, WP Rocket
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of CSP (partial)
  • Lazy loading scripts to improve performance

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Ad networks
Advanced Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
Rank Math SEO
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Bulgarian independent news media outlet.
  2. Uses WordPress CMS with modern plugins and SEO tools.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed; contact via form only.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie banners detected, but privacy policy present.
  5. Good use of structured data for SEO and social media integration.
  6. No signs of adult or malicious content.
  7. Hosting on DigitalOcean with secure HTTPS and standard security headers.
  8. No visible security.txt or incident response info.
  9. Advertising and tracking via common platforms like Facebook Pixel and Google Tag Manager.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern tech stack including Elementor for page building, GiveWP for donations, and Advanced Ads for advertising management. It uses Google Fonts and integrates Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel for analytics and marketing. Hosting is on DigitalOcean, a reputable cloud provider. Performance is moderate with optimizations such as lazy loading scripts via WP Rocket. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO is enhanced through structured data and Rank Math SEO plugin. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The technical infrastructure supports a professional media website with scalability potential.
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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