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Security report for pajhwok.com

Pajhwok Afghan News · Media · Afghanistan

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Pajhwok Afghan News is Afghanistan’s largest independent news agency, established in 2004, providing news content primarily focused on Afghanistan and regional issues. The website serves a general audience interested in current affairs, offering news in multiple languages including English, Dari, and Pashto. The business model centers on news reporting, fact-checking, and subscription services, positioning Pajhwok as a key media player in Afghanistan. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Bootstrap, jQuery, and integration with Stripe for payments. The site is mobile-optimized and uses common plugins for social sharing and content restriction. Security posture is good with HTTPS enabled and domain locking status, but lacks DNSSEC and some security headers. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is professional, content-rich, and trustworthy, but could improve compliance and security practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

7 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 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching pajhwok.com

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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Recommended

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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
65
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
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

Pajhwok Afghan News holds a strong market position as the largest independent news agency in Afghanistan, targeting a broad audience interested in Afghan and regional news. Its revenue streams likely include subscriptions and advertising, supported by partnerships with telecom and financial service providers as indicated by ads. The multilingual approach and extensive news categories enhance its reach. The company demonstrates growth and stability with a domain age of nearly two decades. The partnership ecosystem includes payment processors like Stripe and advertising networks such as Google Adsense. Strategic observations suggest a focus on digital content delivery and audience engagement through social media and subscription models.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain status prohibitions preventing unauthorized domain changes. However, the absence of DNSSEC is a notable gap in DNS security. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, and no vulnerability disclosure program is evident. The use of secure payment gateway Stripe is a positive indicator. Security headers beyond domain locking are not explicitly detected, suggesting room for improvement. The site does not expose sensitive data in the HTML and uses secure forms for login. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  3. Implement additional security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Establish and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  5. Add explicit incident response contact information for security issues.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Pajhwok Afghan News
Description
Pajhwok Afghan News is Afghanistan’s largest independent news agency with headquarters in Kabul and eight regional bureaus.
Key services
News reporting, Fact checking, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Bootstrap 4.4.1, FontAwesome 5.13.0, Google Fonts, Stripe payment integration, AddToAny sharing plugin, Restrict Content Pro plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain locked with multiple client status prohibitions
  • Use of Stripe for secure payments

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Jetpack Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Tracking pixels
Jetpack Stats
Marketing tools
AddToAny social sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional news agency site with multi-language support.
  2. Content is rich with recent news articles and categorized sections.
  3. Uses WordPress CMS with common plugins for sharing and subscription.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the homepage or header.
  5. Secure payment integration via Stripe is present.
  6. Social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
  7. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; login form present.
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  9. No signs of adult or unsafe content.
  10. No WAF or blocking detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform using a modern technology stack including Bootstrap 4.4.1, jQuery, FontAwesome, and Google Fonts. It integrates Stripe for payment processing and uses plugins like AddToAny for social sharing and Restrict Content Pro for subscription management. Hosting is supported by Cloudflare DNS services and domain registration is via GoDaddy. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks include lack of DNSSEC and missing advanced security headers. The site is well-structured but could benefit from modernization of some components and enhanced security configurations.
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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