Skip to main content

Security report for farner.ch

Farner Consulting AG · Media · Switzerland

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Farner Consulting AG is a well-established Swiss communication agency with over 70 years of experience and a large team of 300 experts. The company offers a broad range of communication services including public affairs, media relations, corporate communications, healthcare, financial services, technology communications, and more. Their target audience primarily consists of businesses and organizations in Switzerland seeking integrated communication solutions. The website is built on WordPress and leverages multiple modern JavaScript libraries and marketing tools such as HubSpot and Google Tag Manager. While the site is professionally designed with good SEO and mobile optimization, it suffers from a critical security issue due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate, which undermines HTTPS security. The presence of HSTS headers is positive but ineffective without proper SSL. Email authentication records like SPF have syntax errors, and the DMARC policy is minimal, indicating room for improvement in email security. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy but lacks a cookie consent mechanism despite tracking scripts. Overall, the website is functional and professional but requires urgent security enhancements to protect user data and improve trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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 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';…

  3. 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 farner.ch

This scan found 18 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
100
Security headers
30
Email security
50
DNS health
80
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
25
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 · found on this site
  • 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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention farner.ch, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for farner.ch right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Farner Consulting AG holds a strong market position in the Swiss media and communication sector, leveraging a partner-led agency model with a wide service portfolio. Their competitive advantage lies in their integrated communication disciplines and experienced team. The business model focuses on service delivery to corporate clients across various sectors. The company maintains active social media channels and showcases awards and case studies to build credibility. The website content and structure support their brand positioning as a trusted and established agency. However, technical and security shortcomings could impact client trust and operational resilience if not addressed. No parent or subsidiary companies were identified, indicating an independent operation. The company targets medium to large enterprises requiring comprehensive communication strategies.

Security posture

The website's security posture is weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of modern TLS protocols, which exposes users to potential interception and undermines trust. Although HSTS is enabled, it cannot enforce HTTPS without a valid certificate. SPF records are present but contain syntax errors, and DMARC is set to 'none' without reporting, limiting email protection. No advanced security headers beyond HSTS are implemented. The site uses popular third-party libraries but no vulnerable versions were detected. There is no evidence of a published security policy, incident response plan, or vulnerability disclosure program. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism despite tracking scripts raises privacy compliance concerns. Overall, the site requires immediate remediation of SSL issues and improvements in email security and privacy practices to meet modern standards.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate supporting TLS 1.2 or higher to secure all site traffic.
  2. Correct SPF record syntax and implement a DMARC policy with reporting to enhance email security.
  3. Implement a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  4. Add additional security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to harden the site.
  5. Develop and publish a formal security policy and incident response plan to improve organizational security posture and transparency.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Farner Consulting AG
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS and uses a variety of JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Plyr, Flexslider, Tiny Slider, ScrollMagic, Isotope, and Lottie for animations and UI enhancements. It integrates marketing and analytics tools such as Google Tag Manager and HubSpot. The site includes structured data (JSON-LD) for local business information, improving SEO and search engine understanding. Performance metrics indicate slow DNS resolution and no measured page load time or resource count, suggesting potential optimization opportunities. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design and alternate language links. Hosting details are inferred from DNS records but not explicitly identified. The site lacks modern SSL/TLS configuration, which is a critical technical risk. Overall, the technical stack is modern and feature-rich but requires security and performance tuning.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with farner.ch. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review farner.ch.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.