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Security report for eu-startups.com

EU-Startups · Media · N/a

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

EU-Startups.com operates as a leading online magazine dedicated to European startups, providing news, interviews, funding updates, and ecosystem insights. The platform also hosts events such as the EU-Startups Summit, offers a job board, and maintains databases for startups and investors. Their business model combines media publishing with event management, membership subscriptions, and premium research reports, targeting startup founders, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders across Europe. The website demonstrates a strong market position as a trusted source within the European startup community. Technically, the site is built on WordPress, leveraging popular plugins for SEO, membership management, and e-commerce. It integrates multiple third-party services including Google Adsense for advertising, Google Tag Manager for analytics, and social media tracking pixels. The site is mobile optimized with good performance and SEO practices, though accessibility features are basic. The technical infrastructure supports a professional digital presence suitable for its audience. From a security perspective, the website enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR requirements. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not clearly present, and no public security or incident response policies are found. The absence of WHOIS domain registration data is a notable concern, reducing transparency and trust from a domain legitimacy standpoint. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. Overall, EU-Startups.com presents a professional, content-rich platform with a solid business model and good technical implementation. The main risk lies in the lack of publicly available domain registration information, which should be addressed to enhance trustworthiness. Strategic improvements in security headers and incident response disclosures would further strengthen the security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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 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';…

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching eu-startups.com

This scan found 16 issues across 5 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

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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
60
Security headers
55
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
78

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

EU-Startups.com holds a prominent position in the European startup media landscape, leveraging a diversified business model that includes advertising, event hosting, membership clubs, and premium research offerings. Its competitive advantage lies in its focused niche, extensive network, and active community engagement through newsletters and social media. Revenue streams likely include advertising, event ticket sales, sponsorships, and subscription fees. The target customer segments are startup founders, investors, corporates, and ecosystem builders in Europe. Growth indicators include a large newsletter subscriber base and recurring events. Partnerships with companies like futuretravel.com indicate a collaborative ecosystem approach. The company maintains a consistent brand and professional content, reinforcing its market credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options suggests room for improvement in defense-in-depth strategies. No public security policy or incident response contact information is available, which limits transparency and preparedness perception. The use of multiple third-party tracking scripts increases the attack surface and privacy considerations. The missing WHOIS data raises concerns about domain registration transparency, which could be a red flag for some stakeholders. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers, publishing security policies, and improving domain registration visibility.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and tracking pixels to minimize privacy risks and potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Address the missing WHOIS domain registration data by ensuring domain registration details are publicly available or justified by privacy protection policies.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to comply with standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
EU-Startups
Description
EU-Startups.com is the leading online magazine about startups in Europe. Learn more about us and our advertising options.
Key services
Startup news and interviews, Event organization (EU-Startups Summit), Job board for startups, Startup and investor databases, Premium research reports, Membership club with exclusive benefits
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, Easy Digital Downloads, Paid Memberships Pro, jQuery, Google Adsense, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of secure cookies (implied)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), LinkedIn Insight, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Google Analytics (via GTM)
Marketing tools
Hellobar
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional online magazine focused on European startups
  2. Content is rich and well-structured with multiple service offerings
  3. Strong social media and event presence
  4. Uses WordPress CMS with common plugins for SEO, membership, and e-commerce
  5. Implements cookie consent and privacy policy consistent with GDPR
  6. No obvious security or content blocking detected
  7. WHOIS data is missing, which is a concern for domain transparency
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a modern tech stack including Yoast SEO, Easy Digital Downloads, and Paid Memberships Pro plugins. It integrates advertising and analytics services such as Google Adsense, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and LinkedIn Insight Tag. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses Google Fonts for typography. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site uses standard HTML5 and CSS3 with some inline styles and scoped CSS. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to improve accessibility and security header implementation to align with best practices.
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. 76/100Low22 findingsView report
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