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Security report for news38.de

News38 · Media · Germany

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

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

News38 is a regional news media website serving the PLZ-Region 38 area in Germany, including cities such as Braunschweig, Wolfsburg, and Salzgitter. The site provides current news, sports updates, weather, and traffic information tailored to local residents and interested readers. It operates under the umbrella of Funke Mediengruppe's digital infrastructure, leveraging modern web technologies and SEO best practices to deliver content effectively. The website demonstrates a good level of digital maturity with WordPress CMS, Yoast SEO, and integrated analytics and advertising platforms.

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

6 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
  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 news38.de

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.

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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
70
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
63

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 news38.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2
Employees
0
Customers
0
Third parties
2
Weak passwords
0%

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 news38.de.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The website holds a solid position as a regional news provider with a clear focus on local content. Its business model revolves around digital advertising and content publishing, targeting residents and stakeholders in the PLZ-Region 38. The presence of social media channels and structured data enhances its reach and search visibility. The partnership with Funke Mediengruppe's digital services suggests a stable operational foundation. While direct contact information is limited on the homepage, the site maintains professional content and compliance with privacy regulations, supporting its credibility.

Security posture

The site employs HTTPS and uses consent management tools to comply with GDPR. Security headers are partially implemented, and no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The use of third-party scripts is managed asynchronously, reducing performance impact. However, there is room for improvement in implementing comprehensive security headers and ensuring all forms have robust input validation and anti-CSRF protections. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from enhanced header policies and regular security audits.

Recommendations

  1. Implement full security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Conduct regular vulnerability assessments on third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate risks from external dependencies.
  3. Enhance form security by adding anti-CSRF tokens and input validation to prevent injection attacks.
  4. Increase transparency by providing clear contact information and security incident response contacts on the website.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies regularly to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
News38
Description
Aktuelle und regionale News für und aus der PLZ-Region 38: Braunschweig, Wolfsburg, Wolfenbüttel, Salzgitter, Gifhorn, Helmstedt, Peine. aktuell. regional. informiert.
Key services
Regional news articles, Local event coverage, Sports news, Traffic and weather updates
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO Premium, Google Tag Manager, Spark advertising platform, ConsentManager, ElasticPress, Parsely analytics, Kaltura video player
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of consent management platform
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Parsely
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Spark
Tracking pixels
Parsely
Marketing tools
ConsentManager
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 focused on PLZ-Region 38 in Germany.
  2. Content is well structured with clear navigation and categorized news sections.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found on the homepage.
  6. Social media presence on Facebook and Instagram is integrated.
  7. Advertising and tracking scripts are present but managed with consent mechanisms.
  8. No signs of malicious content or security issues detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with Yoast SEO Premium for search optimization. It uses Google Tag Manager and Parsely for analytics, Spark for advertising, and ConsentManager for cookie consent. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts to improve speed. Hosting appears to be managed by Funke Digital, indicated by DNS and script domains. The technical stack is modern and well-integrated, though performance tuning and security header enhancements could further improve the site's robustness.
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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