Skip to main content

Security report for osel.cz

OSEL.CZ · Media · Czech Republic

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

48/100

Risk levelHigh

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

OSEL.CZ is a well-established Czech electronic magazine focused on popularizing science and research, operating since 2002. The website offers a broad range of science articles covering topics such as physics, biology, genetics, and general scientific curiosities, targeting a general audience interested in science and society. The business model relies on advertising revenue, primarily through Google Adsense, and community support. The site maintains a consistent brand presence with active content updates and author attributions, enhancing its credibility in the Czech media landscape. Technically, the website uses a mix of older and modern web technologies including jQuery 1.8.2, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, and Facebook SDK. While the site is mobile-optimized and has a good user experience, some outdated libraries present potential security risks. The hosting and domain registration are consistent and long-standing, indicating a stable infrastructure. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent implemented, but lacks advanced security headers such as Content Security Policy. No explicit security or incident response policies are published. Privacy compliance is basic with a privacy policy and cookie banner present, but no terms of service or vulnerability disclosure. Overall, the site is trustworthy but could improve security and compliance documentation. The overall risk is low to moderate. Strategic recommendations include updating outdated libraries, implementing stronger security headers, publishing security and incident response policies, and enhancing privacy compliance documentation to align with GDPR and best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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

9 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 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

  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
    • 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';…

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

Keep watching osel.cz

This scan found 23 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
20
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
10
Average
48

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

OSEL.CZ holds a strong position as a niche science popularization media outlet in the Czech Republic, with a long operational history since 2002. Its competitive advantage lies in specialized, high-quality scientific content authored by recognized contributors. Revenue streams are primarily advertising-based, supplemented by community support. The target customer segment includes science enthusiasts, students, and the general public interested in natural sciences and technology. The partnership ecosystem includes academic and commercial sponsors. Growth indicators include frequent content updates and active user engagement via comments and social media integration. The business operates with a small team and custom CMS infrastructure.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the use of outdated JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 1.8.2 introduces potential vulnerabilities. The absence of modern security headers like Content Security Policy and lack of published security or incident response policies indicate gaps in security governance. No visible vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file reduces transparency. The site does not expose sensitive data in HTML and uses secure forms for search functionality. Overall, the security posture is adequate but requires improvements to mitigate risks and enhance compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Update all outdated JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions.
  2. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) and other security headers such as X-Frame-Options and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and vulnerability disclosure guidelines on the website.
  4. Enhance privacy compliance by providing detailed cookie and data retention policies.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
OSEL.CZ
Description
Elektronický časopis Osel.cz se zabývá popularizací vědy a výzkumu.
Key services
Science articles, News and research popularization, Discussion forums, RSS feeds, Support/donations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.8.2, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Facebook SDK, Fancybox, Pickadate, Tokeninput
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Cookie consent implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel (via Facebook SDK)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Czech science popularization magazine with extensive article content.
  2. Uses Google Adsense and Google Analytics for monetization and tracking.
  3. Includes cookie consent banner compliant with GDPR.
  4. No visible terms of service or explicit security policies.
  5. Uses some outdated JavaScript libraries which may pose security risks.
  6. WHOIS data is consistent and domain is long-standing.
  7. No signs of WAF or content blocking.
  8. Social media presence via Facebook is integrated.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom or unknown CMS with a technology stack including jQuery 1.8.2, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Facebook SDK, Fancybox, Pickadate, and Tokeninput. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and uses standard meta tags for SEO. Performance is moderate, with some potential for improvement by updating libraries and optimizing scripts. Accessibility is basic, with room for enhancements such as ARIA roles and keyboard navigation support. Hosting is provided by REG-ZONER, consistent with the domain registrar. The site uses HTTPS but lacks advanced security headers. Overall, the technical infrastructure is functional but could benefit from modernization and security hardening.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with osel.cz. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review osel.cz.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.