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Security report for metro.co.uk

Metro · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Metro.co.uk is a well-established UK-based media website operated by Metro, a free daily newspaper published by DMG Media, part of the Daily Mail and General Trust group. The site offers news, sport, entertainment, and celebrity content targeting a broad general audience. It holds a strong market position as a major UK news outlet with a large readership. Technically, the website is built on WordPress CMS, leveraging modern web technologies including VideoJS for media, Google Fonts, and Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection. The site is well-optimized for desktop and mobile platforms with good SEO and accessibility basics. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and use of security best practices, although explicit security policies and vulnerability disclosures are not publicly visible. Overall, the site demonstrates high business credibility and professional content quality, with moderate user tracking and advertising integrations. The domain is long-standing and registered with a reputable registrar, consistent with the business claims.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

6 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 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

  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

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

Keep watching metro.co.uk

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

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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
42
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
66

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

Metro.co.uk operates under the Metro brand, a free UK newspaper distributed widely in public transport and public places. The business model is advertising-supported, with digital presence complementing print distribution. The site targets general UK audiences interested in news, sports, entertainment, and celebrity culture. It benefits from the backing of DMG Media and the Daily Mail and General Trust, providing strong market presence and resources. The website integrates multiple advertising networks and tracking tools, indicating mature monetization strategies. Social media presence across major platforms supports audience engagement and brand visibility. No subsidiaries or affiliate domains were detected beyond the parent company relationship.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and uses security headers implied by script integrity and crossorigin attributes. Google reCAPTCHA is implemented to mitigate automated abuse. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of publicly visible security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms suggests room for improvement in transparency and readiness. The site does not appear to be behind a WAF or security challenge, indicating open accessibility. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from enhanced policy disclosures and formal incident response documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Add a security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency.
  3. Implement a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and advertising integrations to mitigate supply chain risks.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards and improve user experience for all audiences.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Metro
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Metro
Description
Metro is a free daily newspaper published in tabloid format in the United Kingdom by DMG Media. It is distributed from Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) mornings on trains, buses, stations, and other places such as cafes, workplaces, and street vending boxes.
Key services
News, Sport, Entertainment, Showbiz, Celebrity news
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.3, JavaScript, VideoJS, Google Fonts, Google reCAPTCHA, Amazon CloudFront (CDN), ANM advertising scripts
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of integrity and crossorigin attributes on scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4, Metro Analytics (custom)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
ANM (Associated Newspapers Media), Google DoubleClick (2mdn.net)
Tracking pixels
Google Analytics 4 (ga4props), Facebook Pixel (fbAppId)
Marketing tools
Google reCAPTCHA
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major UK media news portal with extensive content.
  2. Uses modern web technologies and WordPress CMS.
  3. No privacy or cookie policy pages explicitly found in provided content.
  4. Contact information is present in structured data but no visible contact forms detected.
  5. No explicit security or incident response policies found.
  6. Advertising and analytics are integrated with major providers.
  7. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress 6.8.3, utilizing modern JavaScript libraries including VideoJS for video playback and Google Fonts for typography. It uses a CDN (CloudFront) for content delivery and integrates advertising scripts from ANM and Google DoubleClick. The site employs Google reCAPTCHA for bot mitigation and has structured data in JSON-LD format for SEO and rich results. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. The technical stack is mature and well-maintained, though opportunities exist to improve accessibility and security header completeness.
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. 64/100Medium34 findingsView report
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