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Security report for mcclatchy.com

McClatchy · Media · N/a

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

McClatchy is a well-established media company focused on delivering local journalism and digital marketing services to communities and marketers. The website presents a professional and content-rich platform targeting general audiences, marketers, and job seekers. The company emphasizes community engagement and journalistic integrity. Technically, the website uses a mix of legacy and modern web technologies including jQuery 1.7.1, Google Custom Search, and Google Analytics. The site is mobile optimized with good navigation and design quality. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and domain verification signals present, but lacks visible security headers and uses outdated JavaScript libraries which could pose risks. Privacy compliance is partially met with a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service, but no cookie consent mechanism is detected. WHOIS data is missing, which is unusual and slightly reduces trust, though the website content and branding strongly indicate legitimacy.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of mcclatchy.com. View the latest report

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

4 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

  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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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Keep watching mcclatchy.com

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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
72
Security headers
65
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
76

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 mcclatchy.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
305
Employees
1
Customers
285
Third parties
19
Weak passwords
10%

Latest record dated 2026-05-15 · 17 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for mcclatchy.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –portal.mcclatchy.com2026-05-15

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)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

McClatchy operates in the media sector with a focus on local journalism and digital marketing. Its business model revolves around content publishing, community engagement, and marketing services. The company targets a broad audience including local communities, marketers, and job seekers. The presence of employee portals and career services indicates a mature organizational structure. The company maintains partnerships with related domains for employee services and subscriptions. The website's content quality and branding consistency support a strong market position. However, the absence of WHOIS data is a notable anomaly that warrants further investigation. The company leverages Google Analytics for user insights and employs standard marketing tools. Overall, McClatchy appears to be a large, established media entity with a solid digital presence.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and includes domain verification mechanisms such as Google site verification and Facebook domain verification, which are positive security indicators. However, the absence of visible security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options reduces the overall security posture. The use of an outdated jQuery version (1.7.1) introduces potential vulnerabilities. No direct contact information for security or incident response is provided, and no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files are found. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking a cookie consent mechanism despite GDPR relevance. Overall, the security maturity is moderate with room for improvement in headers, library updates, and incident response transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement standard security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Upgrade JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Publish explicit security and incident response policies including contact channels for vulnerability reporting.
  5. Investigate and resolve the missing WHOIS data to improve domain registration transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
McClatchy
Description
McClatchy is a media company committed to local journalism, helping people and communities thrive through newsrooms delivering extraordinary journalism and digital marketing services.
Key services
Local journalism, Digital marketing, Community engagement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.7.1, Google Custom Search Engine, PrettyPhoto jQuery plugin, Font fonts.net, Google Analytics (ga.js)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google site verification
  • Facebook domain verification

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Google Custom Search Engine
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented with clear navigation and multiple sections.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage or footer.
  4. Privacy policy and terms of service pages are present and linked.
  5. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected.
  6. Social media presence is active with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook links.
  7. WHOIS data is missing, which is unusual and reduces trust slightly.
  8. Use of older jQuery version (1.7.1) may pose security risks.
  9. Google Analytics is used for tracking user behavior.
  10. No visible security headers detected in provided data.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of legacy and modern web technologies, including jQuery 1.7.1, Google Custom Search Engine, PrettyPhoto plugin, and Google Analytics. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses external font services. Performance is moderate with no explicit indicators of slow loading but could benefit from modernization. SEO is basic with meta tags present but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. Accessibility is basic with no ARIA roles or landmarks identified. Hosting provider and CMS are not explicitly identified. The site uses HTTPS with a good SSL configuration. Technical debt is indicated by the use of outdated JavaScript libraries and lack of modern security headers.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 72/100Medium33 findingsView report
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