Skip to main content

Security report for gulfnews.com

Gulf News · Media · United Arab Emirates

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Gulf News is a leading media organization providing comprehensive news coverage focused on the UAE, including business, travel, lifestyle, and local updates. It holds a strong market position as the largest news portal in the UAE, targeting a general audience with a broad range of news and informational services. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with integration of multiple advertising and analytics technologies, ensuring monetization and audience measurement capabilities. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and bot protection via Google Recaptcha; however, the absence of key security headers and privacy policies indicates room for improvement in compliance and security best practices. Overall, the website is professional, content-rich, and trustworthy, but should enhance privacy compliance and security headers to strengthen user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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. 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
    • 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 gulfnews.com

This scan found 21 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
40
Email security
92
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
71

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

Gulf News operates primarily in the media sector, leveraging advertising revenue through multiple ad networks and tracking services. Its competitive advantage lies in its extensive local coverage and brand recognition within the UAE market. The business model is content-driven with monetization via advertising and partnerships. The target customer segment is the general public interested in UAE news and related topics. The website's partnership ecosystem includes major ad networks and analytics providers, supporting its revenue streams and audience insights. Strategic observations suggest focusing on enhancing privacy compliance and security transparency to maintain market leadership and user trust.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and use of Google Recaptcha for bot mitigation. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options presents potential risks including clickjacking and MIME sniffing vulnerabilities. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities were detected in the provided content. Compliance gaps exist due to missing privacy and cookie policies, which are critical for GDPR and other data protection regulations. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident, indicating limited readiness for security incidents. Overall, the security posture is functional but requires enhancements to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Establish a public vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact channels to enhance security transparency.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to minimize risks from external dependencies.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and mobile optimization to improve user experience and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Gulf News
Description
Get the latest update on UAE, business, life style, UAE jobs, gold rate, Exchange rate, UAE holidays, Dubai police, RTA and prayer times from UAE’s largest news portal.
Key services
news updates, business news, travel news, gold rate information, prayer times, cinema listings
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Adsense, Google Recaptcha, Chartbeat, Amazon Ads, PubMatic, Project Agora, Conscent SDK
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Recaptcha for bot protection
  • Use of third-party ad and analytics scripts with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense, PubMatic, Amazon Ads, Project Agora
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat
Marketing tools
Conscent SDK
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major UAE news portal with extensive content and advertising integration.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy pages detected in the provided HTML content.
  3. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the main HTML content.
  4. Use of multiple third-party ad and analytics scripts indicates monetization and tracking.
  5. Security headers are minimal; HTTPS is enforced but additional headers recommended.
  6. No signs of WAF or content blocking; site content fully accessible.
  7. No vulnerability disclosure or security policy pages detected.
  8. Content is safe for general audiences with no adult or questionable content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website utilizes a modern technology stack including Google Tag Manager, Adsense, Chartbeat analytics, Amazon Ads, and PubMatic for advertising and tracking. Scripts are loaded asynchronously to optimize performance. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and viewport settings. However, no specific CMS or hosting provider information was detected. Performance is moderate with potential improvements in accessibility and SEO. The technical infrastructure supports a high-traffic news portal but should focus on improving security headers and privacy compliance to reduce technical risks.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with gulfnews.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review gulfnews.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.