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Security report for outbrain.com

Outbrain Inc. · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Outbrain Inc. operates a leading performance marketing platform focused on connecting businesses with engaged audiences through AI-driven content recommendation technology. As a subsidiary of Teads, Outbrain leverages nearly two decades of experience to deliver superior marketing outcomes on the Open Internet. The website presents a professional and well-structured digital presence targeting advertisers and media owners, emphasizing performance, agility, and data-driven results. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and Wistia for video content, hosted on Fastly CDN infrastructure. However, the security posture is notably weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of TLS protocol support, exposing the site to potential risks and undermining user trust. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, but no direct contact information or incident response channels are publicly available. Overall, the site is credible and professionally maintained but requires urgent security improvements to align with best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

3 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 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

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

Keep watching outbrain.com

This scan found 15 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
50
Security headers
45
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Outbrain holds a strong market position as a pioneer in performance marketing on the Open Internet, serving advertisers and publishers with AI-powered targeting and campaign optimization. Its business model centers on delivering measurable ROI through advanced technology and contextual insights. The company benefits from its parent company Teads' resources and global presence. The website content and linked domains confirm a mature business with clear branding and trust signals such as testimonials and investor information. The absence of direct contact details on the site suggests a focus on digital self-service and partner engagement. The partnership ecosystem includes Teads and integrations with major platforms like Google. Growth indicators include expanded resources and a commitment to innovation.

Security posture

The current security posture is suboptimal, primarily due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, which are critical for secure communications. While some security headers like X-Frame-Options and HSTS are present, the conflicting data about HSTS enforcement and missing OCSP stapling reduce effectiveness. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is provided, limiting transparency and readiness for security events. The SPF record is well configured, reducing email spoofing risks. Overall, the site risks user data exposure and trust erosion without immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhanced security transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and configure modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and strong cipher suites.
  3. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve security and performance.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  6. Regularly audit and update security headers and ensure HSTS is properly enforced.
  7. Consider adding direct contact information for customer and security inquiries to improve trust.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built with modern front-end technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and Wistia for video embedding, served via Fastly CDN infrastructure. The site is mobile optimized with responsive images and accessible navigation. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent critical technical debt and security risks. Performance metrics were not available, but the use of CDN and resource preloading suggests moderate to good performance. No CMS or backend platform was identified from the HTML content. The site uses custom CSS and JavaScript with no detected vulnerable libraries. Technical modernization should prioritize security upgrades and performance monitoring.
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. 63/100Medium22 findingsView report
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