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Security report for news12.com

News 12 · Media · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website longisland.news12.com is a regional news portal serving the Long Island area, operated under the News 12 brand, which is owned by Altice USA. It provides local news, weather updates, crime reports, and community event coverage, targeting residents and visitors interested in Long Island. The site uses modern web technologies including React and Next.js, and integrates various advertising and analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and DoubleClick. The technical infrastructure is modern and mobile-optimized, offering a good user experience with clear navigation and professional design. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and standard security practices, though explicit security headers and privacy policies are not clearly visible in the provided HTML snapshot. The absence of WHOIS data for the subdomain is expected as it is a subdomain of a larger parent domain. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professionally maintained, but could improve transparency around privacy and cookie policies.

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 news12.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
62
Security headers
25
Email security
75
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
65

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

News 12 Long Island operates as part of a larger regional news network under Altice USA, focusing on local news content delivery. Its business model relies on advertising revenue supported by multiple ad networks and tracking technologies. The site targets a broad audience of Long Island residents and visitors seeking timely news and weather information. The presence of sister sites in neighboring regions indicates a strong regional network strategy. The company benefits from brand recognition and a consistent content strategy, positioning itself as a key local media player. Growth opportunities include enhancing digital engagement and expanding multimedia content offerings.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and use of modern frameworks that support secure coding practices. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options were not explicitly found in the HTML snapshot, which could be improved. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The site lacks visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which is a gap in security transparency. Privacy compliance is basic, with no clear privacy or cookie policies detected in the snapshot, though consent management scripts are present. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from enhanced transparency and explicit security controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and prominently link comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen security posture.
  3. Publish a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and ad networks to minimize risk from external dependencies.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all visitors.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
News 12
Description
The latest news from Long Island
Key services
Local news reporting, Weather updates, Crime reports, Video news content, Event coverage
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, Video.js, Google Analytics, Hotjar, ScorecardResearch, Browsi, DoubleClick, Prebid.js, Unified Consent Management (privacy-mgmt.com), Airship SDK (push notifications)
Frameworks
Next.js, React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of modern JavaScript frameworks
  • Consent management scripts loaded

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar, ScorecardResearch
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Freestar, Browsi, Pub Network
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, Hotjar, Privacy Management, Airship SDK
Marketing tools
Hotjar, Airship SDK
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a regional news portal for Long Island under the News 12 brand.
  2. Content is rich with local news, weather, crime, and community events.
  3. Modern web technologies and frameworks are used.
  4. No WHOIS data available for the subdomain, but parent domain is reputable.
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie policy pages detected in the HTML snapshot.
  6. Advertising and tracking scripts are present but standard for media sites.
  7. No security or incident response contact information found.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  9. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML snapshot.
  10. No WAF or blocking detected; site content is fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using modern JavaScript frameworks React and Next.js, enabling server-side rendering and improved performance. It integrates multiple third-party services for advertising, analytics, and user engagement, including Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Airship SDK for push notifications. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and preloading of fonts and images for performance. However, some technical debt is suggested by the lack of explicit security headers and incomplete privacy policy implementation. Hosting details are not explicitly found, but the use of CDNs and cloud services is evident. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization in loading times and accessibility compliance.
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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