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Security report for fosters.com

Foster's Daily Democrat · Media · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Foster's Daily Democrat is a regional news media outlet serving Fosters, ME, and surrounding areas, operating under the Gannett media network. The website provides local news, sports, entertainment, and obituary content, targeting local residents and readers interested in community affairs. The business model relies on digital advertising and subscription services, positioning itself as a trusted local news source with consistent branding and professional content quality. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including Polymer, web components, and integrates multiple advertising and analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Adobe Audience Manager, and various ad networks. The site is well-optimized for mobile and accessibility, with good SEO practices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement, cookie consent management via OneTrust, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is robust with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR consent mechanisms. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature digital presence with good business credibility and security hygiene.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 100 · Medium
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

4 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

    • 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

  3. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching fosters.com

This scan found 22 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
62
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
72

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 website operates as a local news portal under the Foster's Daily Democrat brand, owned by Gannett, a major US media company. It leverages a multi-channel advertising ecosystem and analytics to monetize content. The target audience is local community members seeking news and information. The site benefits from Gannett's infrastructure and partnerships, including integration with USA Today and other regional sites. The business model is primarily advertising-driven with subscription options. The site shows consistent branding and professional content, supporting a medium-sized media operation. There is no evidence of suspicious or fraudulent activity. The partnership ecosystem includes major ad networks and content recommendation platforms like Taboola, enhancing revenue streams and user engagement.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR. While explicit security headers like CSP or X-Frame-Options are not directly visible in the HTML, the use of modern frameworks and third-party security-focused scripts suggests adherence to best practices. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. However, the site lacks publicly available incident response or security policy pages, which could improve transparency and readiness. The absence of a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure policy is noted. Overall, the site is secure for typical user interactions but could enhance its security communication and incident management documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Create and maintain a publicly accessible security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and user trust.
  3. Implement a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve security posture.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and ad networks to mitigate risks from external dependencies.
  5. Enhance data retention and privacy policy disclosures to align with evolving regulations and user expectations.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Foster's Daily Democrat
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Foster's Daily Democrat
Description
Get the latest breaking news, sports, entertainment and obituaries in Fosters, ME from Foster's Daily Democrat.
Key services
Local news reporting, Sports coverage, Entertainment news, Obituaries, Digital newspaper subscription
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Polymer, Web Components, OneTrust (cookie consent), Google Analytics, Adobe Audience Manager, Prebid.js, Taboola, Amazon APS, Criteo, Rubicon, OpenX, Sonobi, TripleLift, TrustX, Undertone, Yahoo SSP, Yieldmo
Frameworks
Polymer
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security-focused third-party scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Adobe Audience Manager, Facebook Pixel, Polar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon APS, Criteo, Rubicon, OpenX, Sonobi, TripleLift, TrustX, Undertone, Yahoo SSP, Yieldmo, Taboola
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Adobe Audience Manager
Marketing tools
OneTrust, Taboola, Flipp
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a regional news portal for Foster's Daily Democrat under Gannett
  2. Content is rich with local news, sports, entertainment, and obituaries
  3. Strong use of modern web technologies and ad networks
  4. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent management
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  6. No WHOIS data for subdomain but main domain is legitimate
  7. Good security posture with HTTPS and cookie consent
  8. No adult or explicit content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including Polymer web components, extensive JavaScript, and integrates multiple advertising and analytics platforms. Hosting and CDN services appear to be managed by Gannett, ensuring reliable delivery. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is well-implemented with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). The site uses OneTrust for cookie consent management, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. There is an opportunity to improve technical security headers and incident response mechanisms. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional media website with scalable advertising and analytics capabilities.
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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