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Security report for nbcnews.com

NBC News · Media · United States

Low risk. 1 critical or high finding in DNS health.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

NBC News is a leading American news media organization providing breaking news, video reports, and comprehensive coverage across multiple sectors including politics, business, health, and culture. The website serves a broad general audience with a professional and well-structured digital presence. It leverages a modern technology stack including React-based frameworks, JW Player for video, and advanced analytics and advertising tools. The site demonstrates strong security posture with HTTPS, security headers, and cookie consent mechanisms. However, WHOIS data is not publicly available, likely due to privacy protection, which is common for high-profile media brands. Overall, NBC News maintains a high level of trustworthiness and professionalism in its digital operations.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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

1 finding rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain staging.nbcnews.com points to unregistered service stg-elb-verticalsweb-a-513092359.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching nbcnews.com

This scan found 17 issues across 5 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
90
Security headers
60
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
78

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

NBC News operates as an enterprise-level media company under NBCUniversal, targeting a wide audience interested in current events and news. Its business model is primarily advertising-supported, supplemented by partnerships with sister sites and streaming services like Peacock. The company benefits from a strong brand presence, extensive content offerings, and a robust digital ecosystem. Its partnerships with other NBCUniversal properties and external platforms enhance its market reach and content distribution. The site’s use of advanced marketing and analytics tools indicates a mature digital marketing strategy.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and a cookie consent mechanism aligned with GDPR compliance. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, there is no publicly visible security policy or incident response contact information, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. The use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate potential risks. Overall, the security measures are robust for a media website of this scale.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact page to improve transparency.
  2. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to prevent vulnerabilities.
  3. Enhance visibility of contact information for security incidents and data protection inquiries.
  4. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
NBC News
Description
Go to NBCNews.com for breaking news, videos, and the latest top stories in world news, business, politics, health and pop culture.
Key services
News reporting, Video news content, Live streaming, Podcasts, Newsletters
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (Next.js), JW Player, Adobe Launch, OneTrust Cookie Consent, Google Tag Manager, Branch.io, ScorecardResearch, Skimlinks, Parsely
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of modern security headers
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
ScorecardResearch, Parsely, Google Analytics (via GTM)
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
MPS (NBCUniversal), Taboola
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, Parsely, TVPixel, OneTrust
Marketing tools
Branch.io
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major US news media outlet with extensive content and video integration.
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and third-party services for analytics, advertising, and content delivery.
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms implemented.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage or main navigation.
  5. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure page detected.
  6. No visible security incident response contact information.
  7. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  9. No WAF or blocking detected; full content accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

NBC News employs a modern and scalable technical infrastructure, utilizing Next.js for server-side rendering and React for frontend components. Video content is delivered via JW Player, and the site integrates multiple analytics and advertising platforms such as Google Tag Manager, Parsely, and Taboola. Hosting appears to be via Akamai CDN, ensuring fast content delivery globally. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, with proper SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine visibility. Performance is fast with no major technical debt indicators visible in the HTML content.
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. 76/100Low26 findingsView report
  2. 75/100Medium6 findings · partial scanView report
  3. 78/100Low25 findingsView report
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