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Security report for fd.nl

FD Mediagroep BV · Media · Netherlands

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) is a leading Dutch financial news media company providing comprehensive news coverage on stock markets, economy, politics, and business. The website targets Dutch-speaking professionals and investors seeking timely and in-depth financial information. FD operates a subscription-based business model supplemented by advertising revenue. The domain is well-established since 1997, indicating a mature market presence. Technically, the website employs modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, integrates multiple analytics and advertising platforms including Google Analytics, Chartbeat, and Hotjar, and uses a consent management platform to comply with GDPR requirements. The site is served over HTTPS with DNSSEC enabled, reflecting good security practices. However, some advanced security headers are missing, and no explicit security or incident response policies are published. Overall, the website demonstrates a strong security posture, excellent content quality, and good privacy compliance, making it a trustworthy source for financial news.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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

2 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.

    • 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

  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 fd.nl

This scan found 13 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.

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
75
Security headers
80
Email security
93
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
85

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

FD holds a strong market position as a premier financial news provider in the Netherlands, leveraging a subscription model to monetize high-quality content. Its target audience includes finance professionals, investors, and policymakers. The company benefits from a long domain history and consistent branding. The integration of multiple third-party services supports advertising and user engagement but requires ongoing security vigilance. The absence of explicit contact emails or phone numbers suggests a controlled communication channel, likely via web forms. FD's partnership with FD Mediagroep BV and related domains indicates a focused media group ecosystem. The website's comprehensive coverage and professional presentation support its competitive advantage in the Dutch financial media landscape.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with HTTPS and DNSSEC enabled, mitigating common network-level attacks. The presence of CSRF tokens and a consent management platform indicates attention to user privacy and session security. However, the lack of advanced HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security represents an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency in handling security incidents. Overall, FD maintains a good security posture appropriate for a media website but could enhance defenses and communication on security matters.

Recommendations

  1. Implement additional HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Consider creating and publishing a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
FD Mediagroep BV
Description
Het Financieele Dagblad is a Dutch news website providing the latest news about the stock market, financial world, economy, politics, and entrepreneurship.
Key services
News articles, Stock market data and analysis, Podcasts, Subscription services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Chartbeat, VWD Streamer, Hotjar, Google Ads, Consent Management Platform (CMP) from fdmg
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • DNSSEC enabled
  • CSRF token present in meta tags
  • Consent management platform implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Hotjar, Scorecard Research
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Hotjar, Scorecard Research
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional Dutch financial news portal.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and updated.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with CMP.
  4. Use of multiple third-party analytics and advertising services.
  5. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges.
  6. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed; contact via service page.
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies found.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and diverse technology stack with jQuery 3.7.1, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Hotjar, and a proprietary consent management platform. The site is well-optimized for SEO with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) for articles. Performance is moderate with preconnect and preload hints to optimize resource loading. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. Hosting details are not explicitly identified beyond the registrar team.blue nl B.V. The site uses multiple external domains for content delivery and analytics, which requires careful management to avoid performance or security issues. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and scalable news platform.
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. 85/100Low18 findingsView report
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