Skip to main content

Security report for kingsburyjournal.com

Kingsbury Journal · Media · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Kingsbury Journal is a small local news media outlet serving Kingsbury County and surrounding communities in South Dakota. The website offers a broad range of local content including news, sports, obituaries, opinion pieces, classifieds, legal notices, and community announcements. It operates a subscription and advertising-based business model with a digital e-edition offering. The site is positioned as a trusted regional news source with consistent branding and active content updates. Technically, the website uses a modern but somewhat dated technology stack including Bootstrap 3, jQuery 1.11, Font Awesome, and integrates multiple Google Analytics and Facebook tracking scripts. The site is hosted likely via GoDaddy and uses a custom CMS by Creative Circle Media Solutions. Performance and mobile optimization are moderate to good, with room for accessibility improvements. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and has domain registration protections in place but lacks DNSSEC and important security headers such as CSP and HSTS. The use of an outdated jQuery version may expose some vulnerabilities. Privacy compliance is weak, with no visible privacy or cookie policies or consent mechanisms, which could pose regulatory risks. Overall, the website is functional, professional, and trustworthy for its audience but should prioritize improving security headers, updating libraries, and implementing privacy compliance measures to reduce risk and enhance user trust.

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 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 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

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

Keep watching kingsburyjournal.com

This scan found 26 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. See sample alerts.

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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
60

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

Kingsbury Journal operates as a local community newspaper with a focus on Kingsbury County and nearby towns. Its competitive advantage lies in hyperlocal content and community engagement through news, sports, and announcements. Revenue streams likely include subscriptions, advertising, and classifieds. The target customers are local residents and businesses seeking community information and advertising opportunities. The company has demonstrated growth by relaunching in 2020 and maintaining active digital content. Partnerships include Creative Circle Media Solutions for CMS and hosting via GoDaddy. Strategic observations suggest a need to enhance digital privacy and security to maintain credibility and comply with evolving regulations.

Security posture

The website exhibits a basic security posture with HTTPS enabled and domain registration locks active. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security reduces its defense against common web threats. The use of an outdated jQuery version (1.11.0) may expose the site to known vulnerabilities. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, indicating limited transparency in security governance. Privacy compliance gaps, including missing privacy and cookie policies, increase regulatory risk. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but requires improvements to meet best practices and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Update jQuery and other JavaScript libraries to the latest secure versions to reduce exposure to known exploits.
  4. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements and implement a cookie consent mechanism.
  5. Develop and publish a security policy and incident response plan to enhance transparency and preparedness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Kingsbury Journal
Description
Local news publisher serving Kingsbury County and surrounding areas with news, sports, obituaries, opinion, classifieds, legal notices, and community announcements.
Key services
Local news reporting, Sports coverage, Obituaries, Opinion columns, Legal notices, Classified ads, Community announcements, E-edition digital newspaper
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.11.0, Bootstrap 3.3.2, Font Awesome 4.4.0, Google Analytics (multiple UA and GA4 IDs), Facebook SDK, Google Tag Manager, WebFont Loader
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS for external scripts and assets
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP locks

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (UA and GA4), Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Facebook SDK
Marketing tools
Facebook SDK
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a local news media outlet with active and regularly updated content.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, indicating potential compliance gaps.
  3. Use of multiple Google Analytics and Facebook tracking scripts suggests moderate user tracking.
  4. No security headers or DNSSEC enabled, indicating room for security improvements.
  5. Domain registration is stable and consistent with business claims.
  6. Website design and navigation are professional and user-friendly.
  7. No adult or explicit content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom CMS provided by Creative Circle Media Solutions, built on Bootstrap 3 and jQuery 1.11.0, which is outdated and may pose security risks. Multiple Google Analytics and Facebook SDK scripts are used for tracking, indicating moderate user data collection. The site loads external resources from reputable CDNs and uses Google Fonts for typography. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design elements. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements by updating libraries and optimizing scripts. SEO is supported by structured data (JSON-LD) and Open Graph tags. Accessibility features are basic and could be enhanced. Hosting is inferred to be via GoDaddy based on registrar and nameservers.
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 kingsburyjournal.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 kingsburyjournal.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.