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Security report for gothamist.com

Gothamist · Media · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Gothamist is a well-established non-profit local news organization focused on New York City, providing news coverage on local events, food, and arts. The website is powered by WNYC and has been operational since 2003, indicating a mature presence in the local media market. The business model centers on non-profit journalism with a target audience of NYC residents and local news consumers. Technically, the site uses a modern JavaScript stack with multiple third-party advertising and analytics services integrated, including Google Tag Manager, Amazon Ads, Facebook Pixel, and others. The site is hosted with domain registration via Amazon Registrar and DNS managed by Cloudflare, but DNSSEC is not enabled. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced and domain status protections, but lacks advanced security headers and published security policies. Privacy compliance is weak due to absence of visible privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but could improve privacy transparency and security best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

5 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 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

  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 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain shop.gothamist.com points to unregistered service switchboard-prod-163893959.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching gothamist.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.

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
47
Security headers
70
Email security
75
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
68

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

Gothamist holds a strong position as a local news provider in New York City, leveraging its non-profit status and affiliation with WNYC to build trust and credibility. Its revenue streams likely include donations, grants, and advertising. The extensive use of third-party ad networks and tracking services suggests monetization through advertising. The target customer segment is local residents interested in news, food, arts, and events. The site’s partnership ecosystem includes major ad networks and analytics providers. Growth indicators include a long domain history and consistent branding. Strategic observations include the need to enhance privacy compliance and security transparency to maintain audience trust in a privacy-conscious market.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and domain registration protections in place. However, the lack of DNSSEC and absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent gaps that could be exploited. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are published, which limits transparency and readiness. The extensive use of third-party scripts increases the attack surface and privacy risks. Compliance gaps exist regarding GDPR and cookie consent mechanisms. The security culture appears basic with room for improvement in formalizing policies and controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms.
  3. Add security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to harden the site.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  5. Review and minimize third-party tracking scripts to reduce privacy risks and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Gothamist
Description
Gothamist is a non-profit local newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Key services
Local news reporting, Food coverage, Arts and events information
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Amazon Ads, Cloudflare DNS, Facebook Pixel, Quantcast, PubMatic, Chartbeat
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Quantcast
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ads, PubMatic, HTLBid
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Quantcast, ScorecardResearch, Chartbeat
Marketing tools
ID5 Sync
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a non-profit local news outlet focused on NYC.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided HTML snippet.
  3. Extensive use of third-party advertising and tracking scripts.
  4. No visible contact emails or phone numbers in the provided content.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  6. Good SSL and domain registration practices but DNSSEC not enabled.
  7. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  8. No WAF or blocking detected; content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript-based front end with multiple third-party integrations for advertising and analytics. Domain registration is stable and consistent with the business profile. Hosting and DNS are managed by reputable providers (Amazon Registrar and Cloudflare). Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The site lacks a detected CMS or framework indication. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts and missing DNSSEC. Opportunities exist to modernize security controls and improve privacy compliance to align with best practices.
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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