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Security report for psychologytoday.com

Psychology Today · Media · United States

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Psychology Today is a well-established media and directory platform focused on psychology, mental health, and therapy services. It offers a comprehensive therapist directory, mental health resources, and a magazine subscription service, positioning itself as a leading resource for individuals seeking psychological help and information. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with modern technologies such as Google Tag Manager, CookieYes for consent management, and likely AWS hosting with Cloudflare CDN for performance and security. The site is well-optimized for SEO, accessibility, and mobile responsiveness, providing an excellent user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly available. WHOIS data is unavailable, indicating privacy protection or domain registration anomalies, which slightly impacts trust but is mitigated by the professional presentation and consistent branding. Overall, Psychology Today presents a trustworthy and authoritative online presence in its domain.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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 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 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 psychologytoday.com

This scan found 23 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
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  • 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
77
Security headers
15
Email security
77
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
67

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 company operates primarily in the media and healthcare sectors, targeting individuals seeking mental health support and professionals offering therapy services. Its business model combines advertising revenue with subscription services and directory listings. The platform's extensive use of third-party ad networks and analytics indicates a data-driven marketing approach with extensive user tracking, balanced by transparent cookie consent management. The presence of multiple related domains for membership, signup, and subscription services reflects a mature ecosystem supporting user engagement and monetization. The lack of publicly available contact information and WHOIS transparency suggests a focus on user privacy and operational security, common in large media enterprises.

Security posture

Psychology Today exhibits a solid security posture with HTTPS, Cloudflare protection, and comprehensive cookie consent management. The site avoids exposing sensitive data and uses secure forms. However, it lacks visible security policies, incident response contacts, and a security.txt file, which are recommended for transparency and vulnerability management. The extensive use of third-party scripts and ad networks necessitates ongoing vigilance to prevent supply chain risks. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by publishing formal security and incident response documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and user trust.
  2. Implement and publicly link a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  3. Enhance HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security for improved protection.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and ad networks to mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.
  5. Provide clear company contact information for security and privacy inquiries to strengthen trust and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Psychology Today
Description
Psychology Today provides information and resources related to psychology including behavioral research, mental health, addiction, and a directory of therapists, psychologists, and counselors.
Key services
Therapist directory, Psychiatrist directory, Treatment center directory, Support groups directory, Online therapy, Magazine content and subscription
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, CookieYes Consent Management, Cloudflare (infrastructure likely), Elastic Load Balancing (AWS), Proxima Nova font
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Cloudflare for DDoS and bot protection
  • Cookie consent management with granular controls
  • No exposed sensitive data detected in HTML
  • Secure forms with autocomplete off where appropriate

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar, Vimeo
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Google Ads, CasaleMedia, AppNexus, Teads, OpenX, Optimizely
Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Facebook Pixel, Vimeo tracking
Marketing tools
CookieYes Consent Management
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. Strong cookie consent and privacy management implemented
  3. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found on main page
  4. WHOIS data unavailable, indicating privacy protection or domain registration anomaly
  5. Use of multiple third-party ad and analytics services with extensive tracking
  6. Good SEO and accessibility practices observed
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies found publicly
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and CookieYes for consent management. Hosting is likely on AWS with Cloudflare CDN, providing scalability and security. The site demonstrates good performance and mobile optimization, with well-structured HTML and CSS. Accessibility features and SEO best practices are implemented effectively. The technical infrastructure supports a complex ecosystem of services including directories, magazine content, and user membership portals. Opportunities exist to further modernize security headers and enhance incident response readiness.
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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