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Security report for pcmag.com

Ziff Davis, LLC. · Media · United States

Low risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

PCMag.com is a leading technology media website operated by Ziff Davis, LLC., providing comprehensive product reviews, technology news, and shopping advice. The site targets technology consumers and professionals seeking trusted information on gadgets and tech trends. It operates primarily on an advertising and affiliate revenue model, leveraging its strong brand and editorial authority in the technology media space. Technically, the website uses a variety of modern JavaScript libraries and advertising technologies, hosted behind Cloudflare DNS services. However, the site currently lacks a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which is a significant security concern. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are well implemented, reflecting good GDPR compliance. The site employs extensive tracking and advertising networks, indicating a mature digital marketing infrastructure. Overall, the website is professionally designed with excellent content quality but requires urgent improvements in security posture to protect user data and enhance trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of pcmag.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

5 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 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 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

    • 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 pcmag.com

This scan found 13 issues across 5 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

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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
55
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
78

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 pcmag.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
623
Employees
0
Customers
574
Third parties
49
Weak passwords
22%

15 subdomains affected

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 pcmag.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

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

PCMag.com holds a strong market position as a trusted technology media brand with a long history dating back to 1996. Its competitive advantage lies in lab-tested, objective reviews and a broad coverage of technology products and services. The business model is primarily advertising-driven, supplemented by affiliate marketing. The target audience includes tech enthusiasts, consumers, and professionals globally, with international editions for multiple regions. The company benefits from a robust partnership ecosystem with major ad networks and tracking providers. Growth indicators include continuous content updates and diversified content formats. The parent company, Ziff Davis, is a well-known media conglomerate, enhancing credibility and operational scale.

Security posture

The current security posture of PCMag.com is weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS support, exposing users to potential data interception risks. The site does implement SPF and DMARC DNS records, which help protect email integrity. However, the TLS protocols are disabled, no HSTS policy is enforced, and OCSP stapling is absent, indicating incomplete SSL/TLS configuration. No security.txt or incident response contacts are published, limiting transparency in vulnerability disclosure and incident handling. The use of multiple third-party tracking and advertising scripts increases the attack surface. Immediate remediation of SSL/TLS issues and enhancement of security headers are critical to improving the security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated protocols.
  3. Configure HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload flags.
  4. Correct and properly configure CAA DNS records to restrict certificate authorities.
  5. Publish a security.txt file with clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response contacts.
  6. Review and minimize third-party scripts to reduce tracking and potential vulnerabilities.
  7. Enhance accessibility features and perform regular security audits to maintain compliance.
Technical notes

Notes

The website employs a modern JavaScript-based front-end with libraries such as Swiper.js for UI components and integrates multiple advertising and analytics services including Amazon Publisher Services, Google Tag Manager, Comscore, and OneSignal. DNS records indicate Cloudflare as the DNS provider, enhancing availability and performance. However, the site suffers from slow load times (~17.6 seconds) and a large page size (~1.99 MB), which could impact user experience. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility is basic. The CMS is not explicitly identified, suggesting a custom or proprietary solution. Technical debt is evident in the lack of SSL/TLS and incomplete security configurations, posing risks to business operations and user trust.
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. 78/100Low23 findingsView report
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