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Security report for pca.st

Pocket Casts · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Pocket Casts is a well-established podcast player platform founded in 2010, offering advanced podcast streaming, discovery, and management services across multiple platforms. The website demonstrates a professional and modern design built with React, hosted on AWS infrastructure, and integrates third-party services such as Google Tag Manager and Paddle for analytics and payments. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled and domain registration protections in place, though DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are not published. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with a cookie consent banner but lacks visible privacy and terms of service documentation. Overall, the site is trustworthy, user-friendly, and targets podcast listeners globally.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

4 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching pca.st

This scan found 19 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
100
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
74

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

Pocket Casts operates in the technology sector focusing on media streaming and podcasting. It targets podcast listeners seeking a powerful and user-friendly app experience. The business model includes free access with premium features likely monetized via Paddle payment integration. The domain age and WHOIS data support a mature and legitimate business. Social media presence on major platforms indicates active engagement. The company maintains consistent branding and a strong market position as a leading podcast app.

Security posture

The website uses HTTPS with a reputable certificate and domain registration protections such as clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited statuses. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which could be improved. No explicit security headers were detected in the provided data. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. The absence of published security or incident response policies is a gap. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from enhanced DNS security and transparency in security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages.
  3. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and HSTS.
  4. Provide clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure information.
  5. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data collection and retention practices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Pocket Casts
Description
Pocket Casts provides next-level listening, search and discovery tools. Find your next obsession with our hand curated podcast recommendations, and seamlessly enjoy and manage all your shows no matter which platform you're on.
Key services
Podcast streaming, Podcast discovery, Cross-platform podcast management
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, JavaScript, AWS DNS, Google Tag Manager, Paddle (payment)
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • ClientDeleteProhibited domain status
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • ClientUpdateProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, WordPress Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
WordPress Stats
Marketing tools
Paddle payment platform
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Professional and modern web design with React framework.
  3. Strong branding and consistent messaging focused on podcast listeners.
  4. No explicit privacy or terms of service pages detected in the provided HTML.
  5. Cookie consent banner present indicating some privacy compliance effort.
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  7. Use of reputable external services like Google Tag Manager and Paddle.
  8. WHOIS data shows long domain age and protective domain status flags.
  9. No suspicious or malicious indicators found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using React and modern JavaScript modules, indicating a contemporary tech stack. Hosting is via AWS DNS infrastructure, ensuring reliable performance. The site loads quickly and is mobile-optimized with responsive design. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Accessibility features are present but could be further audited. The use of third-party analytics and payment services is standard but should be balanced with privacy transparency. Overall, the technical implementation is robust and modern.
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. 73/100Medium29 findingsView report
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