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Security report for pennlive.com

PennLive · Media · United States

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

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PennLive is a regional news website providing local news, sports, weather, and entertainment content primarily focused on Central Pennsylvania. It operates under the Advance Local media network, which includes several sister sites across different regions. The website offers subscription-based content alongside advertising revenue streams. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including React and Arc Fusion CMS, with extensive integration of third-party advertising and analytics services. Privacy compliance is implemented via Fides and other consent management tools, indicating a mature approach to GDPR and cookie regulations. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS and some security best practices, though explicit security headers and incident response information are not clearly visible. The WHOIS data is missing or obscured, which is unusual for a major media site but may be due to privacy protection or proxy registration. Overall, the site is professional, content-rich, and well-branded, but could improve transparency in security and contact information.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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"

  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 pennlive.com

This scan found 18 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
85
Security headers
30
Email security
92
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
75

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 pennlive.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
648
Employees
0
Customers
585
Third parties
63
Weak passwords
17%

26 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 pennlive.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

PennLive holds a strong position as a local news provider in Pennsylvania, leveraging the resources of Advance Local. Its business model combines advertising with subscription services, targeting residents interested in regional news and events. The site benefits from a broad network of sister sites, enhancing content sharing and advertising reach. The presence of subscriber-exclusive content suggests a focus on monetizing loyal readers. The extensive use of third-party ad networks and tracking services indicates a data-driven marketing approach. However, the lack of visible direct contact information and WHOIS transparency may impact trust for some users. The site’s technical infrastructure is modern but relies heavily on external services, which could pose risks if not properly managed.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses privacy compliance frameworks such as Fides, indicating awareness of data protection regulations. Multiple third-party scripts for advertising and analytics are present, which increases the attack surface and requires vigilant security management. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers and public incident response contacts limits the security maturity level. The suspicious external domain found in a script source warrants further investigation. Overall, the security posture is moderate with room for improvement in transparency and header implementation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly document comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Audit and validate all third-party scripts, especially those from suspicious or unknown domains, to reduce risk.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience.
  5. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
PennLive
Description
Get the latest Pennsylvania news, sports, and breaking updates. View daily weather and top stories from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and beyond on pennlive.com.
Key services
Local news reporting, Sports coverage, Weather updates, Entertainment news, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Amazon Ads, PubMatic, Rubicon Project, BlueConic, Sophi Analytics, Admiral (adblock detection), Boomerang (performance monitoring), Fides (privacy compliance)
Frameworks
Arc Fusion
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of privacy compliance scripts
  • Adblock detection and messaging

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Ahrefs Analytics, BlueConic
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
PubMatic, Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Google Ad Manager, AdRecover, Taboola
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch, BlueConic, LinkedIn Insight, Ahrefs Analytics, Crwdcntrl
Marketing tools
BlueConic
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a regional news portal with extensive content and advertising integration.
  2. No WHOIS data available, possibly due to privacy or proxy registration.
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies implemented with consent mechanisms.
  4. Multiple third-party ad and tracking scripts detected, indicating extensive user tracking.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  6. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page.
  7. Site uses modern JavaScript frameworks and analytics tools.
  8. No WAF or blocking detected; site content fully accessible.
  9. Suspicious external domain 'www.38167473.xyz' found in scripts, potentially a risk.
  10. Subscriber exclusive content is marked, indicating a subscription business model.
Technical notes

Notes

The site uses a modern JavaScript framework (React) and a proprietary CMS platform (Arc Fusion) optimized for news publishing. It integrates multiple advertising networks and analytics tools, including Google Analytics, BlueConic, and Amazon Ads, indicating a complex and data-rich infrastructure. Performance is moderate with some optimization potential. Mobile responsiveness and SEO practices are good, but accessibility is basic and could be improved. The heavy reliance on third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security and performance monitoring. Hosting details are not explicitly found, but the use of Akamai and other CDN services is implied by script sources.
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. 75/100Medium26 findingsView report
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