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Security report for indianexpress.com

The Indian Express · Media · India

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Indian Express is a well-established Indian news media company operating a comprehensive news portal offering breaking news, entertainment, business, politics, sports, and technology coverage. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with extensive use of third-party advertising and analytics technologies, including Google Tag Manager, Taboola, PubMatic, Amazon Ads, Facebook Pixel, and MoEngage. The site is hosted on a reputable registrar (GoDaddy) with Akamai DNS servers, indicating a robust hosting and CDN setup. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enabled and domain status protections; however, DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not evident in the provided data. Privacy compliance is weak due to the absence of explicit privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms in the analyzed content. The site is content-rich, professionally designed, and targets a general audience with safe content. No WAF or blocking mechanisms were detected, allowing full content access. Overall, the website is credible and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance and security header implementation.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of indianexpress.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

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 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

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

Keep watching indianexpress.com

This scan found 23 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

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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
82
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
69

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 indianexpress.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
3,307
Employees
2
Customers
3,007
Third parties
298
Weak passwords
18%

Latest record dated 2025-08-27 · 22 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 indianexpress.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –indianexpress.com2025-08-27
  • –accounts.indianexpress.com2025-07-20

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

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The Indian Express holds a leading position in the Indian media sector, targeting a broad audience interested in current affairs, entertainment, and sports. Its business model revolves around news publishing supported by advertising revenue from multiple ad networks and affiliate marketing. The company benefits from a long domain history since 2002, consistent branding, and a strong digital presence. The use of multiple tracking and marketing tools suggests a focus on audience engagement and monetization. However, the lack of visible contact information and formal privacy disclosures may impact user trust and regulatory compliance. The company appears to operate independently without clear parent or subsidiary relationships disclosed in the content.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and domain registration protections that prevent unauthorized domain changes. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and others represents a security gap. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, which limits transparency in security management. The extensive use of third-party scripts increases the attack surface and requires vigilant monitoring. No critical vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected in the content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but can be improved by adopting additional security best practices and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and configure security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Publish clear and comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance indicators.
  4. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
  5. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve security transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Indian Express
Description
Today's news: Get latest and Breaking News on Politics, Business, Lifestyle, Entertainment and Sports along with News updates from around the world. Also, find English News, live coverage on Bollywood, Cricket, Technology, Celebrities and more on indianexpress.com
Key services
news publishing, live coverage, entertainment news, business news, sports news, technology news
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Taboola, PubMatic, Amazon Ads, Facebook Pixel, MoEngage, Chartbeat
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP protections

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Scorecard Research
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Taboola, PubMatic, Amazon Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Chartbeat, Scorecard Research
Marketing tools
MoEngage
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 Indian news media portal with extensive content.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the analyzed HTML snippet.
  3. Multiple third-party advertising and tracking scripts are used.
  4. No visible contact emails or phone numbers in the provided content.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information detected.
  6. Good use of structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO and content description.
  7. Domain WHOIS data is consistent and indicates a legitimate entity.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS, inferred from URL paths, and uses a modern JavaScript-heavy front end with multiple third-party integrations for advertising, analytics, and personalization. The hosting setup includes GoDaddy as registrar and Akamai for DNS, indicating a reliable infrastructure. Performance is moderate with preconnect and dns-prefetch hints for optimization. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO is supported by structured data (JSON-LD) and Open Graph tags. Accessibility is basic but present. The technical stack is mature but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and privacy compliance features.
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. 69/100Medium31 findingsView report
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