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Security report for matthewsbooks.com

Matthews Book Company · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Matthews Book Company is a longstanding distributor specializing in medical books, CD-ROMs, and journals serving health sciences professionals including students, physicians, researchers, and libraries. Established in 1889 and employee-owned, the company positions itself as a trusted supplier with a focus on online ordering and subscription services for new publications. The website reflects a B2B business model targeting specialized educational and medical sectors. Technically, the site is built on legacy ASP.NET WebForms technology with outdated JavaScript libraries, indicating moderate digital maturity. The site is accessible, but mobile optimization and modern technical practices are basic. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled but lacking modern security headers and using outdated libraries, which may expose vulnerabilities. Privacy compliance is partial with a privacy policy and terms of use present but no cookie consent mechanism. WHOIS data is missing, raising concerns about domain legitimacy, though the website content and business information appear professional and consistent with a reputable company. Overall, the site is functional but would benefit from modernization and enhanced security and privacy practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

7 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 matthewsbooks.com

This scan found 27 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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
61

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 matthewsbooks.com, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for matthewsbooks.com right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

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

Matthews Book Company operates in the education and retail sectors, focusing on medical and health sciences publications. Its competitive advantage lies in its long history, employee ownership, and specialized product offerings. The business model centers on distribution and online sales to institutional and professional customers. The company maintains partnerships, notably with McCoy Medical, enhancing its service ecosystem. Growth indicators include ongoing updates to product lists and active subscription services. The website content and navigation support a professional image, though technical modernization is needed to maintain competitiveness. The absence of WHOIS data is a risk factor but does not currently undermine the company's market presence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and secure login forms. However, the use of an outdated jQuery version introduces potential vulnerabilities. The absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces protection against common web attacks. No incident response or security policy information is provided, indicating gaps in transparency and preparedness. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR indicators. The missing WHOIS data raises questions about domain registration legitimacy, which could impact trust. Overall, the security posture requires improvements to align with best practices and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Update all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and update privacy practices to ensure GDPR and other privacy regulation compliance.
  4. Conduct a thorough security audit of the ASP.NET WebForms application to identify and remediate legacy vulnerabilities.
  5. Investigate and resolve the missing WHOIS data to improve domain legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Matthews Book Company
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Matthews Book Company
Description
Distributor of medical books, CD-ROMs, and journals to health sciences professionals including students, physicians, researchers, university and hospital libraries, and pharmaceutical industry. Offers online ordering and subscription to bi-monthly new books info emails.
Key services
Medical book distribution, Online ordering, Subscription to new publications info, Publisher and library services
Content quality
good
Branding
moderate

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.3.0, ASP.NET WebForms
Frameworks
ASP.NET
Platforms
Windows Server (implied by ASP.NET)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Secure login form with password field

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible with full content and no blocking detected
  2. Uses legacy ASP.NET WebForms technology with outdated jQuery
  3. No visible security headers detected
  4. Privacy policy and terms of use present but cookie consent missing
  5. Contact information includes phone and physical address
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, raising domain legitimacy questions
  7. No adult or questionable content detected
  8. Google Tag Manager used for analytics and tracking
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on legacy ASP.NET WebForms technology with multiple versions of jQuery referenced, including an outdated 1.3.0 version. The site uses basic CSS styling and minimal modern frontend frameworks. Performance is moderate with no explicit optimization for mobile devices beyond viewport meta tags. SEO is basic with meta descriptions and keywords but lacks advanced structured data or Open Graph tags. Hosting details are not explicit, but the technology stack suggests a Windows Server environment. The site uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking. Technical debt is evident in outdated libraries and legacy code, presenting modernization opportunities to improve security, performance, and user experience.
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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