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Security report for pv-magazine.de

pv magazine · Energy · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

pv magazine Deutschland is a specialized media outlet providing news, market trends, and expert opinions focused on the photovoltaic and energy storage sectors. It serves a professional audience interested in renewable energy developments, offering a broad range of content including articles, podcasts, webinars, and industry events. The website is part of a larger international network with editions in multiple countries, positioning it as a significant player in energy sector media. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern technology stack including jQuery, Google Publisher Tags, and consent management tools. It demonstrates good digital maturity with mobile optimization, SEO best practices, and performance considerations. Hosting is managed via DomainControl nameservers, indicating a professional hosting environment. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and employs consent management for privacy compliance. However, it lacks some recommended security headers and does not provide explicit privacy policies or incident response contacts, which are areas for improvement. No WAF or blocking mechanisms were detected, and no vulnerabilities were apparent in the provided content. Overall, the website presents a low risk profile with strong business credibility and technical implementation. Strategic recommendations include publishing comprehensive privacy and security policies, enhancing security headers, and providing direct contact information to improve trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
33/ 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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  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 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';…

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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
42
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
33
Average
59

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention pv-magazine.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2
Employees
0
Customers
2
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
0%

2 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for pv-magazine.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

pv magazine Deutschland holds a strong market position as a niche media provider in the renewable energy sector, particularly photovoltaics and energy storage. Its business model revolves around content creation, industry events, and partnerships, generating revenue through subscriptions, advertising, and sponsored content. The target audience includes industry professionals, policymakers, and investors. The brand's international presence and regular content updates indicate growth and a well-established partnership ecosystem. The website's integration with multiple social media platforms and event hosting services reflects a mature digital marketing strategy.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security posture with HTTPS enforcement and consent management for cookies. The absence of explicit privacy policies, terms of service, and incident response contacts represents compliance gaps, especially under GDPR and NIS2 frameworks. The lack of a security.txt file and some missing security headers suggest room for improvement in vulnerability disclosure and defense-in-depth strategies. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected, indicating good operational security practices. Overall, the security culture appears professional but could benefit from enhanced transparency and formalized policies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service to enhance legal compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement recommended security headers such as Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Create and publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve incident response readiness.
  4. Provide direct company contact emails and phone numbers for support and security incident reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and plugins to ensure no vulnerable or outdated components are in use.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
pv magazine
Description
Nachrichten aus der Photovoltaik- und Speicherbranche: aktuelle Markttrends, innovative Technologien, Expertenmeinungen und mehr.
Key services
News reporting, Market analysis, Events and webinars, Podcasts, Industry awards, Market overviews
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, Google Publisher Tags (GPT), ConsentManager, YouTube Embed Plus, WordPress Popular Posts, Upme plugin
Frameworks
Bootstrap (implied by navbar classes), Modernizr
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Content Security Policy via origin-trial meta tags
  • Consent management for cookies and tracking
  • No exposed credentials or sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Services
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Google Tag Services, ConsentManager
Marketing tools
ConsentManager, Google Publisher Tags
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 media outlet focused on photovoltaic and energy storage news.
  2. Content is regularly updated with recent articles and events.
  3. Strong social media presence and multiple international editions.
  4. Uses modern web technologies and consent management for privacy compliance.
  5. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found in the provided content.
  6. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via forms and social media.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy detected.
  8. Good SSL and security practices but missing some recommended security headers.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Google Publisher Tags for advertising, and ConsentManager for cookie compliance. It uses Bootstrap-based responsive design ensuring good mobile optimization and accessibility. Hosting is via DomainControl nameservers, likely GoDaddy infrastructure. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts and optimized images. The site uses multiple third-party integrations for analytics, advertising, and video embedding. Technical debt appears low, but opportunities exist to enhance security headers and formalize privacy and security policies.
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. 60/100Medium33 findingsView report
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