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Security report for mbl.is

mbl.is · Media · Iceland

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

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

mbl.is is a leading Icelandic news portal providing a wide range of news content including domestic and international news, sports, culture, weather, and multimedia. The site targets the general Icelandic-speaking public and operates a business model based on advertising and subscription services. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with integration of multiple third-party analytics, advertising, and subscription management platforms, indicating a high level of digital maturity. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and use of consent management, though some improvements in security headers and explicit privacy policies are recommended. Overall, the site presents a professional and trustworthy front with extensive content and good user experience.

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"

  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 mbl.is

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

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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
67
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
65

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 website holds a strong market position as a primary news source in Iceland, supported by partnerships with related media and entertainment sites. Its revenue streams likely include advertising and paid subscriptions managed via Piano.io. The target audience is broad, encompassing general news consumers in Iceland. The site shows signs of strategic partnerships and a well-developed advertising ecosystem. Growth indicators include multimedia content and diversified news categories. The lack of explicit contact information and privacy policy links suggests areas for improvement in transparency.

Security posture

The site uses HTTPS and integrates modern consent management tools, indicating compliance with basic security and privacy standards. However, the absence of visible security headers and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms suggests room for enhancement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The WHOIS data is not publicly available, which is typical for Icelandic domains but limits domain trust verification. Overall, the security posture is moderate to good but could benefit from formalized policies and headers.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a clear and accessible privacy policy and terms of service pages linked prominently.
  2. Implement and verify HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Provide explicit contact information for security incidents and data protection officer details.
  4. Add a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures and improve transparency.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
mbl.is
Description
Icelandic news and more - Innlendar og erlendar fréttir, viðskiptafréttir, íþróttafréttir og fréttir af frægu fólki.
Key services
News articles, Video content, Weather forecasts, Subscription-based content, Advertising platform
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Cxense, Piano.io (subscription/paywall), Microsoft Clarity, CookieFirst (consent management), Bootstrap (CSS framework), jQuery (implied by Bootstrap usage), iframeResizer, State Machine JS
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of consent management platform
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Gallup
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Cxense, Piano.io, NPTTech, Pulsmedia, Arvakur, Gallup, EBX
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Piano.io, CookieFirst
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major Icelandic news portal with extensive content in Icelandic language.
  2. Content includes news, sports, culture, weather, obituaries, and multimedia.
  3. Site uses multiple third-party services for analytics, advertising, and subscription management.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  5. Privacy policy page not explicitly linked or found in the provided content.
  6. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented via CookieFirst.
  7. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure found.
  8. WHOIS data is not publicly available, typical for .is domains.
  9. Site is well-structured with good navigation and mobile optimization.
  10. No adult or explicit content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a modern tech stack including Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Cxense for content personalization, and Piano.io for subscription management. It uses Bootstrap for responsive design and includes multiple ad networks and tracking pixels. The site is mobile-optimized with good navigation and SEO practices including structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with lazy loading of images and ads. No CMS was explicitly detected. Hosting provider details are not evident from the HTML content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a large-scale media operation with room for performance tuning and enhanced 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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