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Security report for phoenix.de

phoenix · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and Security headers.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

phoenix.de is the official website of the German public television channel 'phoenix', operated under the umbrella of ZDF, a major public broadcaster in Germany. The site offers a rich array of political and historical documentaries, talk shows, and live streaming services targeting a general audience interested in current affairs and history. The website demonstrates a professional and consistent brand presence with high-quality content and clear navigation. Technically, the site employs AngularJS and SixCMS for content management, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS usage and no visible sensitive data exposure, but lacks explicit security headers and formal privacy and cookie policies. Analytics are implemented via piano-analytics, indicating moderate user tracking. WHOIS data confirms domain legitimacy and alignment with the parent organization ZDF. Overall, the site is trustworthy and well-positioned in the German public media landscape.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  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';…

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Keep watching phoenix.de

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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  • 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
90
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

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 phoenix.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1
Employees
0
Customers
1
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
0%

1 subdomain 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 phoenix.de.

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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

phoenix operates as a public broadcasting media channel focusing on political and historical content, serving a broad German-speaking audience. Its business model is based on public funding and free-to-air content distribution. The website's market position is strong within the public media sector, leveraging the reputation of ZDF. Key services include documentaries, talk shows, and live streaming. The site integrates third-party analytics and maintains a consistent brand identity. However, the absence of explicit privacy and cookie policies may pose compliance risks. The partnership ecosystem includes ZDF and related media entities. Growth indicators include a diverse content catalog and active live programming.

Security posture

The website maintains a basic to moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive information. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces its defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are provided, which limits transparency and readiness for security incidents. The use of third-party analytics introduces potential privacy considerations. Compliance with GDPR is unclear due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security maturity is adequate for a public media site but could be improved with formal policies and enhanced headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy to ensure GDPR compliance.
  2. Add security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen security posture.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and vulnerability disclosures.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics for privacy and security risks.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and perform periodic security assessments to maintain trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
phoenix
Description
phoenix is a German public television channel focusing on political and historical documentaries, talk shows, and current affairs programming.
Key services
Political documentaries, Talk shows, Live streaming, TV programming
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
AngularJS, JavaScript, CSS, SVG, HTML5
Frameworks
AngularJS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage (implied by URL https://www.phoenix.de/)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
piano-analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
piano-analytics
Marketing tools
piano-analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional public broadcaster portal with rich content on politics and history.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided HTML snippet.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  4. Uses AngularJS framework and SixCMS for content management.
  5. Includes third-party analytics via piano-analytics.
  6. No signs of WAF or content blocking detected.
  7. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  8. WHOIS data aligns with the parent organization ZDF, indicating legitimacy.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses AngularJS framework and SixCMS content management system, indicating a modern but somewhat dated tech stack. The site loads multiple JavaScript libraries and SVG assets for UI components. Performance is moderate with lazy loading of images and responsive design elements. SEO is supported by meta tags and Open Graph data, though some canonical URLs appear placeholder ('xxx'). Accessibility is basic with some ARIA roles and labels. Hosting details are not explicit but WHOIS data suggests stable infrastructure under ZDF. Opportunities exist to modernize the tech stack and improve performance and accessibility.
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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