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Security report for pocketgamer.co.uk

Media · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PocketGamer.com is a well-established media website specializing in mobile and handheld videogame news, reviews, guides, and recommendations since 2005. It targets mobile gamers and enthusiasts with a broad range of content including game reviews, redeem codes, tips, and hardware reviews. The site maintains a professional and consistent brand presence with frequent content updates and a strong social media footprint. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager, DoubleClick advertising, and various ad and tracking SDKs. Hosting appears to be managed via Steelserve. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS usage but lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies in the provided content. WHOIS data is unavailable, which slightly impacts trust but the site’s content quality and network of partner sites support its legitimacy. Overall, the site is a credible resource in the mobile gaming media sector with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

6 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 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 Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Cloudflare, Google APIs, Google Ads

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching pocketgamer.co.uk

This scan found 20 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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
70

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

PocketGamer.com holds a leading position in the mobile gaming media industry, offering comprehensive news, reviews, and guides. Its business model is primarily advertising-driven, leveraging partnerships with ad networks like DoubleClick and Playwire. The site’s target audience includes mobile and handheld game players globally. The presence of multiple sister sites and partner domains indicates a broad network and ecosystem. The company demonstrates consistent content quality and branding, supporting user trust and engagement. However, the lack of explicit contact information and privacy policies may limit direct user trust and regulatory compliance. The site’s growth and market presence are supported by frequent content updates and integration with popular social media platforms.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS, ensuring encrypted communication, and uses modern advertising and analytics technologies. However, there is no evidence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, or X-Frame-Options, which are recommended best practices. No explicit privacy or cookie policies were found in the provided content, which is a compliance gap especially under GDPR. No contact channels for security incidents or vulnerability disclosures are visible. The site does not expose sensitive data or show signs of vulnerable libraries in the analyzed content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be enhanced by implementing security headers, publishing privacy and cookie policies, and providing incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement and configure security headers including CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and vulnerability disclosures, including a security.txt file.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and advertising SDKs for vulnerabilities and privacy impact.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
Pocket Gamer | Mobile games news, guides, and recommendations since 2005
Key services
Mobile games news, Game guides, Game recommendations, Game reviews, Redeem codes, Tier lists, Tips and guides, Features, Hardware reviews
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager, DoubleClick, Prebid.js, PandG SDK, Playwire, Intergient, XMLHttpRequest, JavaScript, CSS3
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage (implied by https URLs)
  • Use of async and defer in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via gtag.js)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
DoubleClick, Playwire
Tracking pixels
ScorecardResearch
Marketing tools
PandG SDK, Prebid.js, Intergient
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 mobile gaming news and review platform.
  2. Content is rich, updated frequently, and well-structured.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main page.
  4. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in provided content.
  5. Multiple social media links to official Pocket Gamer accounts present.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and advertising networks.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to privacy protection or registry limitations.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with asynchronous JavaScript loading, Google Fonts, and multiple advertising and analytics SDKs. Hosting is inferred to be via Steelserve, a known content delivery and hosting provider. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and good SEO meta tags. Performance is moderate, with some reliance on multiple external scripts which may impact load times. No CMS is explicitly detected. There is opportunity to improve technical SEO and accessibility compliance. The site uses XMLHttpRequest for dynamic content loading and sessionStorage caching for partial page content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional media website but could benefit from performance tuning and enhanced security configurations.
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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