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Security report for placehold.co

Placehold · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Placehold is a small technology service offering a free, fast, and simple image placeholder generation platform supporting multiple image formats and customization options. The website is well designed, mobile optimized, and provides clear documentation for users, primarily targeting developers and designers needing placeholder images for projects. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging standard web technologies and Google Analytics for tracking, with advertising via Carbon Ads. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced, but lacks security headers and formal policies such as privacy or cookie policies. No forms or sensitive data collection reduces risk exposure. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but could improve compliance and security transparency. Strategic recommendations include publishing privacy and cookie policies, implementing security headers, and adding vulnerability disclosure information.

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

8 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 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';…

  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 placehold.co

This scan found 25 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.

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
47
Security headers
30
Email security
70
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

Placehold operates in the technology sector as a niche utility service providing image placeholders. Its business model is free service provision, likely monetized through advertising (Carbon Ads). The target audience includes web developers and designers. The company maintains a consistent brand and professional web presence but lacks detailed corporate information such as founding year or parent company. The use of privacy protection in WHOIS is justified for a small tech service. The absence of formal policies and security disclosures suggests room for maturity growth. No partnerships or subsidiaries are evident from the data.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and avoids collecting sensitive user data, which are positive security indicators. However, it lacks important security headers (e.g., Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options) and does not provide a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy. No incident response contacts or data protection officer information is published. Google Analytics is used, but privacy compliance is weak due to missing cookie consent mechanisms and privacy policies. Overall, the security posture is moderate with recommendations to enhance header implementation, transparency, and compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure policy to improve security transparency.
  4. Provide incident response contact information, including security or abuse email addresses.
  5. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Placehold
Description
Placehold is a simple, fast and free image placeholder service to generate SVG, PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP and AVIF placeholder images for your project.
Key services
Image placeholder generation, Support for multiple image formats (SVG, PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF), Customization of size, color, text, font, and retina images
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Google Analytics (gtag.js)
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 sensitive data

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Carbon Ads
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site
  2. Contact available only via support email
  3. No forms present on the website
  4. Uses Google Analytics and Carbon Ads for analytics and advertising
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information
  6. No security headers detected in HTML content
  7. Website is well designed, mobile optimized, and content rich
  8. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a clean, modern HTML5 and CSS design with JavaScript for interactivity and Google Analytics for tracking. It loads quickly and is mobile optimized with responsive design. No CMS or backend platform is detected from the HTML content. External dependencies include Google Tag Manager and Carbon Ads scripts. The site lacks advanced frameworks but is technically sound for its purpose. Performance is fast, and SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Accessibility is good but could be improved with explicit ARIA roles and landmarks.
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. 62/100Medium33 findingsView report
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