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Security report for picsum.photos

Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Lorem Picsum is a niche technology service providing developers and designers with easy-to-use placeholder images. The service offers dynamic image generation with options for size, grayscale, blur, and seeded randomness, sourcing images from Unsplash. The website is well-branded, professional, and optimized for mobile and performance, hosted on Fastly CDN. However, the lack of privacy, cookie, and terms policies, as well as absence of contact information, limits its compliance and trustworthiness. WHOIS data is unavailable due to unsupported TLD WHOIS queries, which reduces domain transparency but does not negate the legitimacy indicated by external references and GitHub presence. Security posture is good with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, but could be improved with explicit security headers and published policies.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

9 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching picsum.photos

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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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
75
Security headers
35
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
60

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

Lorem Picsum operates as a small technology service targeting developers needing placeholder images for design and development. Its business model is based on providing a free API service with images sourced from Unsplash, leveraging Fastly for CDN delivery. The service is positioned as a reliable and stylish alternative to Lorem Ipsum text placeholders but for photos. The presence of GitHub repositories and social media links indicates an open-source or community-driven approach. There are no indications of monetization or partnerships beyond hosting and image sourcing. The lack of formal business information and contact details suggests a lean operation focused on utility rather than commercial enterprise.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security posture with enforced HTTPS and no visible forms or user input fields that could introduce vulnerabilities. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options is a gap. No privacy or cookie policies are published, which is a compliance risk especially under GDPR. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, limiting transparency for security issues. The WHOIS data is incomplete, which reduces domain trust but is somewhat mitigated by the professional site content and external references. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but could be improved with better policy publication and security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement and publish security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and general inquiries.
  5. Consider GDPR compliance statements and cookie consent mechanisms to align with privacy regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
Lorem Picsum provides stylish placeholder photos that can be dynamically requested by size, grayscale, blur, and other parameters.
Key services
Dynamic placeholder image generation, Image resizing, Grayscale and blur image effects, Seeded random image generation, Image metadata and listing API
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Google Fonts, Google Analytics, Fastly CDN
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No visible sensitive data exposure
  • No forms collecting user input

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers provided.
  4. No forms or user input fields present.
  5. Uses Google Analytics for tracking with no visible cookie consent mechanism.
  6. Content is developer-focused placeholder image service with clear usage instructions.
  7. WHOIS data is unavailable due to unsupported TLD WHOIS query.
  8. Site branding is consistent and professional.
  9. No explicit security headers detected in provided data.
  10. Powered by Fastly CDN indicating good hosting performance.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Google Fonts, and Google Analytics for tracking. Hosting is provided by Fastly CDN, ensuring fast performance and global delivery. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS or frameworks are explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or lightweight implementation. The site does not collect user input, reducing attack surface. However, the lack of explicit security headers and privacy policies indicates areas for technical improvement. Overall, the infrastructure is solid with room for enhanced security and compliance features.
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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