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Security report for reachplc.com

Reach PLC · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, Email security and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Reach PLC is a leading UK media company, recognized as the largest commercial, national, and regional news publisher in the UK. The company operates over 120 print and online brands, reaching a broad audience including 70% of the UK online population and a significant global social media following. Their business model focuses on trusted journalism, digital content delivery, and investor relations, positioning them strongly in the media sector. Technically, the website is built on Adobe Experience Manager, leveraging modern web technologies and Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site is well-optimized for mobile and accessibility, with good SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and CSRF protections, though the absence of explicit security headers and incident response contacts suggests room for improvement. The lack of WHOIS data is a notable anomaly that slightly detracts from trustworthiness but does not overshadow the professional and comprehensive nature of the site. Overall, Reach PLC presents a mature digital presence with strong business credibility and good privacy compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

5 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

  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 reachplc.com

This scan found 21 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

€25per month

  • 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
20
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
71

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

Reach PLC holds a dominant market position in UK media publishing, leveraging a diversified portfolio of brands and digital platforms. Their competitive advantage lies in their extensive reach and trusted content, supported by a clear investor relations framework and regulatory transparency. Revenue streams likely include advertising, subscriptions, and services related to their publishing ecosystem. The target customer segments include general news consumers, advertisers, and investors. The company maintains partnerships with specialized service domains such as recruitment and printing, enhancing operational capabilities. Growth indicators include active investor communications and recent corporate governance updates. Strategic observations highlight a focus on digital growth alongside print resilience, reflecting adaptation to evolving media consumption trends.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security maturity level with enforced HTTPS and inclusion of CSRF protection scripts. However, the absence of visible security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options indicates potential gaps in defense-in-depth strategies. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is published, which could hinder rapid response to security events. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear cookie consent mechanisms and a comprehensive privacy policy aligned with GDPR. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a corporate media site but would benefit from enhanced header configurations and published security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish explicit security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve security communication.
  4. Enhance contact information availability on the website to improve business credibility and user trust.
  5. Regularly audit WHOIS data and domain registration details to ensure consistency and legitimacy.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Reach PLC
Description
Reach PLC is the UK’s largest commercial, national and regional news publisher, delivering trusted journalism and entertainment through over 120 print and online brands, reaching 70% of the UK online population and a significant global social media audience.
Key services
News publishing, Digital content delivery, Advertising services, Investor relations
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, jQuery, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Vanilla JS polyfills
Frameworks
Adobe Experience Manager
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF protection script included

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

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 corporate branding and investor relations presence
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found on homepage
  4. No explicit security or incident response contact information published
  5. Cookie consent mechanism implemented with clear user choice
  6. No visible security headers detected in provided data
  7. WHOIS data missing which is unusual and reduces trust score
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Adobe Experience Manager, a robust enterprise CMS platform, indicating a mature technical infrastructure. It uses modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager for analytics and jQuery for client-side scripting. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO metadata and Open Graph tags for social sharing. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of web fonts. There is no indication of outdated or vulnerable libraries in the provided data. Hosting details are not explicit, but the presence of Adobe AEM client libraries suggests enterprise-grade hosting. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and incident response mechanisms to reduce technical risks.
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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