Skip to main content

Security report for iowapublicnotices.com

Iowa Newspaper Association · Government · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

50/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.iowapublicnotices.com serves as a public notice platform affiliated with the Iowa Newspaper Association, providing users with access to legal and public notices across Iowa. It targets a general audience including residents, businesses, and government entities seeking official public information. The platform offers search capabilities with filters by county, city, and publication, supporting transparency and public awareness. Technically, the site is built on ASP.NET WebForms with jQuery and Modernizr, and integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics. The design is professional and mobile-optimized, though accessibility features are basic. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS usage but lacks visible security headers and updated libraries. Privacy and cookie policies are not detected, which is a compliance gap. WHOIS data is unavailable, raising concerns about domain registration transparency. Overall, the site is functional and trustworthy in content but requires improvements in security and privacy compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

8 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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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 iowapublicnotices.com

This scan found 24 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
72
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
50

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

The Iowa Newspaper Association operates this platform to centralize public notices for Iowa, positioning itself as a key regional information provider. The business model likely involves collaboration with local newspapers and publications, generating revenue through publication fees and possibly subscriptions. The site’s partnership with other public notice domains like scpublicnotices.com and usalegalnotice.com indicates a networked approach to public notice dissemination. The target market includes government agencies, legal professionals, and the general public. The platform’s consistent branding and professional content support its credibility. Growth opportunities may include enhanced digital services and expanded coverage.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with mandatory HTTPS in place. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection reduces its defense-in-depth. The use of older versions of jQuery and Modernizr could expose the site to known vulnerabilities if not regularly updated. No explicit incident response or security policy information is found, indicating potential gaps in compliance and readiness. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. The site should implement stronger security controls, regular vulnerability assessments, and transparent privacy practices to enhance trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to comply with GDPR and other regulations.
  2. Add and configure security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  3. Update JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Modernizr to their latest secure versions.
  4. Verify and publish domain WHOIS information to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Establish and communicate an incident response plan and security policy on the website.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Iowa Newspaper Association
Description
A platform providing access to public notices in Iowa, affiliated with the Iowa Newspaper Association, targeting residents and businesses seeking public legal notices.
Key services
public notice search, advanced search, county and city filtering, publication listings
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
ASP.NET WebForms, jQuery 2.2.4, Modernizr 1.7, Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
ASP.NET
Platforms
Windows Server (implied by ASP.NET)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage implied by URL (https://)
  • Use of form hidden fields and ASP.NET viewstate for state management

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website provides a comprehensive public notice search platform for Iowa.
  2. Uses ASP.NET WebForms technology with jQuery and Modernizr.
  3. No privacy or cookie policy detected on main page.
  4. Terms of Service or About Public Notices page present.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in visible content.
  6. No security headers detected in provided data.
  7. No WHOIS data available, domain may be unregistered or privacy protected.
  8. No adult or unsafe content detected.
  9. Google Tag Manager used for analytics and tracking.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using ASP.NET WebForms technology, leveraging jQuery 2.2.4 and Modernizr 1.7 for client-side functionality. Google Fonts and Google Tag Manager are integrated for typography and analytics respectively. The site uses standard web forms with hidden fields for state management. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. Mobile responsiveness is good, but accessibility features are minimal. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured data in JSON-LD format. The lack of detected security headers and outdated libraries represent technical risks. Hosting provider details are not disclosed. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable but would benefit from modernization and enhanced security 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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with iowapublicnotices.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 iowapublicnotices.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.