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Security report for pennlive.com

Advance Local Media LLC · 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.com is a regional digital news platform operated by Advance Local Media LLC, focusing on Pennsylvania local news, sports, and weather. It serves a broad audience interested in Central Pennsylvania news with a business model centered on advertising and digital subscriptions. The site is part of a larger network of regional news sites under Advance Local, indicating a strong market position in local media. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including React and Arc Fusion CMS, supported by a robust analytics and advertising infrastructure. The site is well-optimized for mobile and SEO, with good performance and accessibility standards. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement, bot protection, and security headers, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly disclosed. Privacy compliance is well addressed with comprehensive privacy and cookie policies and active consent mechanisms. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature digital presence with high trustworthiness and professional content quality.

Scanned

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 operates within the media sector, targeting local news consumers in Pennsylvania. Its competitive advantage lies in its affiliation with Advance Local, providing access to shared resources and sister sites. Revenue streams include advertising and subscription services, supported by integrated marketing and analytics tools. The site leverages partnerships with major ad networks and analytics providers to optimize monetization and audience insights. The business ecosystem includes multiple sister domains serving different regional markets, enhancing brand reach and operational synergy. Strategic observations suggest a focus on digital transformation and audience engagement through personalized content and subscription models.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and bot mitigation via DataDome. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. However, the absence of a publicly available security policy or incident response contact information represents a compliance gap. The site’s use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate supply chain risks. GDPR compliance is evident through the use of a consent management platform (Fides) and detailed privacy policies. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not explicitly documented, which could be improved to enhance transparency and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page including incident response contacts to improve transparency.
  2. Implement a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure program to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience.
  4. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.
  5. Provide clearer data retention and privacy practices disclosures to strengthen GDPR compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Advance Local Media LLC
Description
Provides latest Pennsylvania news, sports, breaking updates, daily weather, and top stories from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and beyond.
Key services
Local news reporting, Sports coverage, Weather updates, Digital subscriptions, Newsletters and alerts
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Arc Fusion CMS, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Marfeel SDK, Sophi Analytics, DataDome Bot Protection, AdRecover, Tinypass (payment/subscription), Boomerang (performance monitoring)
Frameworks
React, Arc Fusion
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Bot protection via DataDome
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Sophi Analytics, Ahrefs Analytics, LinkedIn Insight
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ad System, Rubicon Project, Casale Media, DoubleClick, Taboola, Scorecard Research, BlueConic
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight, Sophi Analytics, DataDome, Ahrefs Analytics
Marketing tools
Tinypass (subscription/paywall), Marfeel SDK
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 regional news portal with extensive content and multimedia.
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and analytics.
  3. Good privacy and cookie compliance with active consent mechanisms.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  5. Advertising and tracking are present but standard for media sites.
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed; contact via forms and account system.
  7. No explicit security policy or incident response info published.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring React and Arc Fusion CMS, enabling dynamic content delivery and modular design. Integration with multiple analytics and advertising platforms supports data-driven decision-making and monetization. Hosting appears to leverage Akamai CDN services, contributing to moderate to good performance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and includes SEO best practices such as structured data (JSON-LD) and Open Graph metadata. Technical debt appears minimal, though continuous monitoring of third-party scripts is advised to maintain security and performance. Opportunities exist to further enhance accessibility and streamline consent management for improved user experience.
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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