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Security report for freitag.de

der Freitag · Media · Germany

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

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Der Freitag is a German weekly newspaper focusing on politics, economy, and culture, serving a German-speaking audience interested in these topics. The website acts as a digital platform for the newspaper, offering news articles and subscription services. The business model centers on media publishing with a strong digital presence, positioning itself as an established player in the German media landscape. The company targets readers seeking in-depth political and cultural content. Technically, the website uses a modern stack including Plone CMS, Google Tag Manager, Matomo analytics, and advanced header bidding technologies for advertising. Consent management is implemented via Sourcepoint, indicating GDPR compliance efforts. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though security headers are not explicitly detected. Privacy compliance is supported by consent mechanisms but lacks explicit privacy and terms of service pages. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-optimized for mobile users. Recommendations include publishing clear privacy and security policies, enhancing security headers, and providing contact information for improved transparency and compliance.

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

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 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. 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

  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 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 freitag.de

This scan found 20 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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
72
DNS health
60
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
85
Average
60

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

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 freitag.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
387
Employees
0
Customers
387
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
12%

5 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for freitag.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Der Freitag operates in the media sector as a weekly newspaper with a digital platform. It leverages advertising networks and header bidding to monetize its content. The company targets politically and culturally engaged German readers. Its competitive advantage lies in its established brand and comprehensive coverage of politics, economy, and culture. The business model relies on subscriptions and advertising revenue. The website integrates multiple advertising partners and analytics providers, indicating a mature digital marketing ecosystem. No parent or subsidiary companies were identified. The company maintains consistent branding and good content quality, supporting its market position. Growth indicators include advanced ad technology adoption and GDPR-compliant consent management.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses consent management tools to comply with GDPR, reflecting a mature approach to privacy and security. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not evident, representing an area for improvement. There is no publicly available security policy or incident response contact, which could hinder effective vulnerability reporting and incident handling. The extensive use of third-party advertising and tracking scripts necessitates vigilant consent management and security monitoring. Overall, the security posture is good but can be enhanced by adopting additional security headers and publishing clear security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit privacy policy and terms of service pages accessible from the website footer or main navigation.
  2. Implement and configure security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Provide a publicly accessible security policy and incident response contact (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email) to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with standards and user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and advertising partners to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance and minimize privacy risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
der Freitag
Description
Die Wochenzeitung für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur
Key services
Weekly newspaper publication, Online news articles, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Matomo Analytics, Sourcepoint Consent Management, Prebid.js (header bidding), Adobe Audience Manager, Google Publisher Tags (GPT), Plone CMS
Frameworks
Plone
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Consent management for GDPR
  • No exposed sensitive data detected in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Adobe Analytics, Emetriq
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, AppNexus, Amazon Ads (apstag), Yieldlab, Criteo, Rubicon, TripleLift, Pubmatic, Teads, GumGum, ID5, Adobe Audience Manager
Tracking pixels
Matomo, Adobe Analytics, Emetriq
Marketing tools
Sourcepoint CMP
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a German weekly newspaper focused on politics, economy, and culture.
  2. Uses modern consent management and analytics tools respecting GDPR.
  3. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in provided content.
  4. Extensive advertising and header bidding infrastructure present.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML content.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  7. No security headers detected in provided data; SSL is enabled.
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Plone CMS platform, utilizing modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks for analytics, consent management, and advertising. It integrates Google Tag Manager, Matomo Analytics, Adobe Audience Manager, and multiple header bidding partners such as Prebid.js and Amazon Ads. The site is optimized for mobile devices with responsive design and preloading of fonts and scripts. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to improve page load times. SEO is supported by proper meta tags including Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The technical infrastructure is robust, supporting a complex advertising ecosystem while maintaining GDPR compliance through Sourcepoint CMP integration.
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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