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Security report for ft.com

Financial Times · Media · United Kingdom

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

Security score

82/100

Risk levelLow

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

Financial Times is a leading global financial news and analysis publisher targeting a broad audience interested in markets, economics, and politics. The website offers subscription-based access to exclusive content, market data, and specialized financial reports. The brand is well-established with a strong market position in the media and finance sectors. Technically, the site employs a modern tech stack including React, Preact, Origami, and Bloomreach CMS, hosted likely on AWS infrastructure, ensuring fast performance and excellent mobile optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced, use of security headers, and consent management for privacy compliance. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly visible. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with GDPR and cookie regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 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. 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
    • 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

  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 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';…

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

Keep watching ft.com

This scan found 14 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
57
Security headers
75
Email security
82
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
Average
82

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

Financial Times operates a subscription-based digital media business model focused on delivering high-quality financial news and analysis. Its competitive advantage lies in exclusive content, comprehensive market data, and a reputable brand. Revenue streams include subscriptions and advertising partnerships with major ad networks. The target customer segments are professionals, investors, and general readers interested in financial markets. The company leverages partnerships with analytics and marketing platforms such as Chartbeat, Amplitude, and Google Tag Manager to optimize user engagement and advertising effectiveness. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and specialized financial tools. The ecosystem includes related domains like stockpickinggame.ft.com and professional-monetary-policy-radar.ft.com, enhancing service offerings.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security best practices observed, including secure script loading and consent management for privacy. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. However, the absence of publicly available security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates areas for improvement. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy and cookie policies and consent banners. The site would benefit from publishing explicit security documentation and providing clear channels for security incident reporting to enhance trust and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance frameworks.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Provide clear contact information for a Data Protection Officer or security incident response team.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate risks from external dependencies.
  5. Maintain accurate and publicly accessible WHOIS information to improve transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Financial Times
Description
News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics
Key services
Financial news reporting, Market data and analysis, Subscription content, Specialized financial tools and reports
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, React, Preact, Origami, Bloomreach, Google Tag Manager, Chartbeat, DoubleClick, Amplitude Session Replay
Frameworks
Origami, React, Preact
Platforms
Bloomreach, AWS (implied by AWS RUM config)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of secure cookies (implied)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Third-party scripts loaded asynchronously
  • Consent management platform in use

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, Amplitude, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Adsafe Protected
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Amplitude Session Replay, FT Spoor
Marketing tools
Bloomreach Exponea, Consent Manager
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and analytics
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage content
  5. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to registry restrictions
  6. High quality, professional financial news content
  7. Multiple external trusted domains used for analytics and advertising
  8. No security or incident response contact information publicly visible
Technical notes

Notes

The Financial Times website is built on a robust and modern technical infrastructure utilizing React and Preact frameworks, Origami design system, and Bloomreach CMS. Hosting appears to be on AWS with region eu-west-1 indicated. The site employs advanced analytics and marketing tools including Chartbeat, Amplitude Session Replay, and Google Tag Manager, integrated with a consent management platform for GDPR compliance. Performance is optimized with asynchronous script loading and preloading of critical assets. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured data. Technical risks are minimal but depend on continuous management of third-party scripts and privacy compliance.
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. 74/100 +1Medium26 findingsView report
  2. 73/100Medium26 findingsView report
  3. 75/100Medium3 findings · partial scanView report
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