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Security report for kut.org

KUT Public Media · Media · United States

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

44/100

Risk levelHigh

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

KUT Public Media operates as a prominent public media and NPR-affiliated radio station serving Austin and Central Texas. The organization provides a broad range of news, cultural programming, podcasts, and community engagement services, supported by donations, memberships, and sponsorships. The website reflects a mature digital presence with professional design, clear navigation, and rich content tailored to its regional audience. Technically, the site leverages Brightspot CMS, Amazon CloudFront CDN, and integrates advertising and analytics tools from Google and Facebook, indicating a modern infrastructure. However, a critical security gap exists due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS support, which significantly impacts user trust and security posture. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but lacking cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is credible and well-positioned in its market but requires urgent security improvements to protect users and maintain trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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"

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

Keep watching kut.org

This scan found 18 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.

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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
0
Security headers
30
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
44

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

KUT Public Media holds a strong market position as Austin's NPR station, benefiting from its affiliation with the University of Texas and NPR network. Its business model relies on public funding, memberships, donations, and advertising. The site demonstrates a robust partnership ecosystem including NPR, the university, and local community organizations. The content strategy focuses on local news, politics, arts, and culture, appealing to a diverse audience in Central Texas. The presence of multiple podcasts and digital streaming options highlights a commitment to digital transformation and audience engagement. The organization maintains consistent branding and trust signals, reinforcing its reputation as a reliable public media source.

Security posture

The website's security posture is currently weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS, exposing users to potential risks such as data interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. While some security headers like Content-Security-Policy are implemented, critical protections such as HSTS, OCSP stapling, and modern TLS protocols are missing. No evidence of incident response policies or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms is found, indicating limited readiness for security incidents. The site does not provide explicit data protection officer contact or detailed security frameworks. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhancement of security policies are recommended to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  3. Enable OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve security and performance.
  4. Introduce a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user trust.
  5. Publish clear security and incident response policies, including contact channels for security issues.
  6. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  7. Enhance accessibility features and provide comprehensive terms of service documentation.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Brightspot CMS platform and hosted via Amazon CloudFront CDN, ensuring scalability and content delivery efficiency. It uses modern JavaScript libraries and integrates Google Tag Manager and Facebook SDK for analytics and marketing. Advertising is managed through Google DFP, with lazy loading and asynchronous rendering for performance optimization. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO practices including meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent significant technical debt and security risk. Performance metrics are not available, but the use of CDN and optimized assets suggests moderate to good loading speeds. Opportunities exist to improve technical SEO, accessibility, and security configurations.
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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