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Security report for heute.at

DJ Digitale Medien GmbH · Media · Austria

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Heute.at is a prominent Austrian online news portal operated by DJ Digitale Medien GmbH, offering 24/7 news coverage across a wide range of topics including politics, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle. The platform targets a general German-speaking audience primarily in Austria, providing free access to news content supported by advertising and subscription services such as e-paper and newsletters. The website demonstrates a consistent brand presence and maintains active engagement through multiple social media channels. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including ES6 JavaScript, Bootstrap 5 framework, and integrates third-party services like Chartbeat for analytics and ID5 for identity management. It features responsive design optimized for mobile devices and incorporates GDPR-compliant consent management mechanisms. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in accessibility and SEO. From a security perspective, Heute.at enforces HTTPS and uses captcha mechanisms for EU users, indicating attention to user security and privacy. However, the absence of explicit security headers and lack of published privacy and terms of service documents on the homepage limit full compliance assessment. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Overall, Heute.at presents a trustworthy and professional news media website with a solid technical foundation and moderate privacy compliance. The lack of WHOIS data restricts domain registration trust evaluation but does not detract significantly from the site's legitimacy based on content and branding. Strategic improvements in security headers, privacy documentation, and contact transparency would enhance its security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 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

6 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

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

Keep watching heute.at

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

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

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Full report

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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
15
Email security
65
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
Average
70

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

Heute.at operates as a leading Austrian digital news media outlet, leveraging a broad content portfolio to attract a wide audience. Its business model centers on advertising revenue supplemented by subscription-based e-paper and newsletter services. The company benefits from a strong social media ecosystem, enhancing reach and engagement. Market positioning is robust within Austria's media landscape, with competitive advantages including rapid news updates and diverse topical coverage. Growth indicators include active multimedia content and community features. Partnerships with related domains like epaper.heute.at and jobs.heute.at suggest a diversified service offering. The company appears well-established but lacks publicly available detailed corporate data such as founding year or parent company information.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security maturity with HTTPS enforced and integration of GDPR consent management tools. Use of captcha for EU users adds protection against automated abuse. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection reduces defense-in-depth. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, and no dedicated security contact information is found. Third-party scripts are present, which necessitates ongoing vulnerability management. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved by implementing recommended headers, publishing security policies, and enhancing transparency around incident response.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish clear and accessible privacy policy and terms of service pages to improve legal compliance and user trust.
  3. Provide explicit contact information for security incidents and designate a data protection officer to enhance incident response readiness.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to prevent vulnerabilities from external dependencies.
  5. Enhance website accessibility features to comply with standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
DJ Digitale Medien GmbH
Description
Das schnellste Newsportal - Die Newsplattform heute.at berichtet täglich während 24 Stunden über alle News und Hintergründe aus Politik, Welt, Sport, Community, Szene, Digital, Wirtschaft, Tiere, Science, Wohnen, Reisen, Fashion and Beauty, Love, Gewinnen, Motor.
Key services
News reporting, Video content, E-Paper, Newsletter, Community engagement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript ES6, Chartbeat, ID5, Privacy Management SDK, Splide.js slider
Frameworks
Bootstrap 5
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of captcha for EU users
  • Consent management platform integration

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Adnami
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, ID5
Marketing tools
Consent Management Platform
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional Austrian news portal with broad topical coverage.
  2. Content is in German language targeting Austrian and German-speaking audience.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage HTML.
  4. Social media presence is strong with official Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube links.
  5. Uses modern web technologies and consent management for GDPR compliance.
  6. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages detected in provided HTML snippet.
  7. Advertising and tracking scripts are present but standard for news media sites.
  8. No signs of adult or NSFW content.
  9. WHOIS data is unavailable, limiting domain registration trust analysis.
Technical notes

Notes

Heute.at uses a modern technology stack with ES6 JavaScript, Bootstrap 5, and integrates analytics and identity management services. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and uses lazy loading for images to improve performance. SEO is supported by appropriate meta tags and Open Graph data. However, some images show lazy loading errors, indicating potential issues with resource loading. Accessibility is basic, suggesting room for improvement. Hosting details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical implementation is solid but could benefit from performance tuning and enhanced accessibility 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

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