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Security report for newbooksnetwork.com

New Books Network · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 10 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 3 other checks.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

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

New Books Network is a specialized academic media platform that produces and distributes podcasts focused on new scholarly books across a wide range of disciplines. It serves a niche audience of academics, students, and intellectually curious listeners, offering curated content and author interviews. The platform is supported through Patreon memberships, affiliate book sales, and merchandise, reflecting a sustainable content-driven business model. Technically, the site is built on Craft CMS and employs modern JavaScript libraries and analytics tools, hosted by Bluehost Inc. The website demonstrates good design quality, mobile optimization, and user experience, though some SEO and accessibility features could be enhanced. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and CSRF protections, but lacks DNSSEC and comprehensive security headers. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the domain age and WHOIS data support the site's legitimacy and trustworthiness.

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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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"

    • 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching newbooksnetwork.com

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

€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
52
Security headers
30
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
56

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 New Books Network occupies a unique position in the academic podcast market, leveraging partnerships with academic networks and funding platforms like Patreon. Its revenue streams include listener support, affiliate sales, and merchandise, targeting a specialized but engaged audience. The platform's broad subject coverage and professional presentation provide competitive advantages. However, the absence of explicit privacy and security policies may impact trust with privacy-conscious users. The partnership ecosystem includes reputable academic and book sales platforms, enhancing credibility. Growth potential lies in expanding audience engagement and improving compliance and security transparency.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and uses CSRF tokens in forms, indicating basic security hygiene. However, the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent areas for improvement. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are provided, which could hinder timely security issue reporting. The use of third-party analytics and tracking scripts introduces moderate user tracking, but no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Enhancing security policies and transparency would strengthen the overall security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Enable DNSSEC to secure DNS infrastructure.
  3. Implement standard security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options).
  4. Create and publish a security.txt file with incident response contacts.
  5. Improve accessibility features and SEO metadata for better compliance and discoverability.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
New Books Network
Description
New Books Network is a media platform focused on academic and intellectual podcasts featuring new books across a wide range of disciplines including arts, history, politics, religion, science, and more. It targets scholars, students, and intellectually curious audiences.
Key services
Podcast episodes featuring interviews with authors, Curated academic content across multiple disciplines, Subscription and newsletter services, Affiliate book sales, Patreon membership support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, CrazyEgg, YouTube iframe API, Algolia Autocomplete, Glide.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Client transfer prohibited status on domain
  • Use of CSRF tokens in forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, CrazyEgg
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
CrazyEgg
Marketing tools
Patreon
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed academic podcast network.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on homepage.
  3. Multiple external trusted domains linked for analytics and funding.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided content.
  5. Uses modern JavaScript libraries and CMS (Craft CMS).
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  7. No visible security headers in provided data; DNSSEC not enabled.
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Craft CMS and uses modern JavaScript libraries including Algolia Autocomplete, Glide.js, and integrates Google Analytics and CrazyEgg for analytics and UX insights. Hosting is provided by Bluehost Inc., a reputable provider. The site is mobile optimized and has a clear navigation structure. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to improve speed. However, SEO metadata is minimal, and accessibility features are basic. There is an opportunity to enhance technical SEO, accessibility compliance, and security configurations to reduce technical debt and improve user experience.
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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