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Security report for mdr.de

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) is a large regional public broadcaster serving the Mitteldeutschland region of Germany, including Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, and Thüringen. The website mdr.de provides comprehensive news coverage, radio and television programming, and multimedia content such as videos, audios, and podcasts. It is part of the ARD consortium, reflecting a strong market position in public media. The content is professionally curated and targets the general public in the region with a focus on local and international news, culture, and sports. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including React, lazy loading, and custom media players. It integrates Piano Analytics for user behavior tracking and uses Leaflet for interactive maps. Hosting appears to be managed by reputable German academic and research networks, ensuring stable infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured navigation. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and does not expose sensitive data in the HTML. However, explicit security headers and detailed privacy or cookie policies are not detected in the provided content, indicating room for improvement in transparency and compliance. No WAF or blocking mechanisms are detected, and no vulnerabilities are apparent from the content analysis. Overall, MDR.de is a trustworthy and professional media website with excellent content quality and business credibility. Strategic improvements in privacy disclosures and security header implementation would enhance its compliance and security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

7 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  3. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

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

Keep watching mdr.de

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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

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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
57
Security headers
45
Email security
65
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

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 mdr.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
659
Employees
2
Customers
549
Third parties
108
Weak passwords
21%

Latest record dated 2026-01-12 · 12 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 mdr.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –sts.mdr.de2026-01-12
  • –sts.mdr.de2025-07-20

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

MDR operates as a public broadcasting entity with a stable market position in the German media landscape. Its business model is based on public funding and providing regional news and entertainment content. The website serves as a digital platform for broadcasting and news dissemination, targeting a broad audience in Mitteldeutschland. The presence of multiple media formats (video, audio, podcasts) and integration with ARD services indicates a mature digital ecosystem. Partnerships with ARD Mediathek and ARD Audiothek extend its reach. The company benefits from strong brand recognition and trust, supported by consistent branding and reputable content sources.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The absence of explicit security headers in the provided data suggests potential gaps in defense-in-depth strategies. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is found, which could limit transparency in security management. The use of third-party analytics (Piano Analytics) introduces moderate user tracking, but no privacy controls or consent mechanisms are evident. Overall, the security maturity is adequate for a public broadcaster but could be enhanced by publishing security policies and implementing comprehensive headers.

Recommendations

  1. Publish clear and comprehensive privacy and cookie policies on the website to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement and disclose security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen security posture.
  3. Establish and publicize an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy to enhance transparency and security culture.
  4. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to comply with privacy regulations and provide users with control over tracking.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and optimize performance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Description
Nachrichten, Sport, Kultur, Unterhaltung, Audios und Videos aus Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen und der Welt. Und das MDR-Programm in Radio und TV.
Key services
News reporting, Radio broadcasting, Television broadcasting, Online media content (videos, audios, podcasts)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, React, Piano Analytics, Leaflet (maps), LazySizes (lazy loading images), ARD Player (custom video/audio player)
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage implied by canonical and og:url (https://)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piano Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piano Analytics
Marketing tools
Piano Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a regional public broadcaster for Mitteldeutschland in Germany.
  2. Content is rich with news articles, videos, audios, and podcasts.
  3. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided content.
  5. Strong branding and consistent use of logos and media rights.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  7. No signs of security blocking or WAF challenges.
  8. No adult or NSFW content detected.
  9. WHOIS data consistent with legitimate public broadcaster.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack with React for frontend rendering, lazy loading for images, and custom media players for audio and video content. Integration with Piano Analytics indicates advanced user behavior tracking capabilities. The use of Leaflet for interactive maps adds to user engagement. Hosting via DFN and university servers suggests reliable infrastructure. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site lacks explicit CMS identification but likely uses a custom or proprietary system. SEO is well addressed through meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks are minimal but could be reduced by adding security headers and improving privacy controls.
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. 61/100Medium34 findingsView report
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