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Security report for pressherald.com

Press Herald · Media · United States

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Press Herald is a leading regional news media organization serving the state of Maine, providing comprehensive news coverage including breaking news, investigations, politics, sports, and cultural content. The website operates on a subscription and advertising revenue model, targeting residents and readers interested in Maine-specific news. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager, OneSignal for push notifications, and various advertising and analytics integrations. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and use of security best practices, though explicit security headers and incident response policies are not fully documented. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant. The absence of WHOIS registration data is a notable anomaly but does not detract significantly from the site's legitimacy given its professional presentation and established brand. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-maintained, and serves its audience effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 100 · Low
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 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 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

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching pressherald.com

This scan found 15 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
65
Security headers
55
Email security
90
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
78

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

The Press Herald holds a strong market position as Maine's top news source, supported by sister publications under Maine Today Media. Its business model leverages digital subscriptions and advertising, with diversified content offerings including newsletters, ePapers, and event coverage. The company maintains partnerships with local job boards and public notice services, enhancing its community integration. The website's professional design and consistent branding reinforce its credibility. Growth indicators include active subscription management and engagement tools such as push notifications. The partnership ecosystem includes major ad networks and analytics providers, supporting monetization and audience insights.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and secure login forms. Use of Content Security Policy and other security scripts is inferred, though explicit security headers like HSTS and X-Frame-Options are not clearly documented in the provided data. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is strong with clear policies and consent mechanisms. However, the absence of a published incident response plan or vulnerability disclosure program suggests room for improvement in transparency and readiness. Regular audits of third-party scripts and enhanced security header implementation are recommended to maintain and improve security maturity.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publicly document security headers such as HSTS and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish an incident response policy and establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to improve transparency and security culture.
  3. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate risks from external libraries.
  4. Enhance WHOIS registration data transparency or clarify privacy protection rationale to improve domain trustworthiness.
  5. Continue to monitor and optimize website performance and accessibility to maintain high user experience standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Press Herald
Description
Maine’s top source for news and information. Our journalists bring you breaking news, investigations, politics, features, sports, opinion, and photos from across the state of Maine.
Key services
News reporting, Investigations, Photo galleries, Newsletters, Subscription services, ePaper access
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Publisher Tags, OneSignal Push Notifications, Parsely, Amazon Ads, Hashtaglabs, Viafoura
Frameworks
WordPress theme mainetoday
Platforms
WordPress VIP
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure login forms
  • Use of CSP and other security scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Parsely
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, Amazon Ads, Hashtaglabs, KueezRTB
Tracking pixels
Parsely, Google Analytics (inferred via GTM), OneSignal
Marketing tools
Parsely, OneSignal
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional news media outlet focused on Maine state news.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and includes multiple sections and newsletters.
  3. Uses modern web technologies and advertising platforms.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present and comprehensive.
  5. No signs of adult or malicious content.
  6. WHOIS data is missing or unavailable, which is unusual for a commercial domain.
Technical notes

Notes

The Press Herald website is powered by WordPress with a custom theme and integrates multiple modern technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Publisher Tags, OneSignal for push notifications, and advertising platforms such as Amazon Ads and Hashtaglabs. The site uses CDN services for fonts and scripts, contributing to moderate performance. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well implemented. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured JSON-LD schema for news media organization. The technical infrastructure is robust but could benefit from explicit documentation of hosting provider and enhanced security header 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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