Skip to main content

Security report for readly.com

Readly · Media · Ukraine

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Readly is a digital media company offering a subscription-based magazine app that provides unlimited access to thousands of magazines globally. The company has a strong market position with a broad international footprint, targeting consumers who prefer digital reading experiences with features like offline access and family sharing. Technically, the website is built on Ruby on Rails and leverages modern web technologies and cloud hosting via AWS, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security-wise, Readly employs strong TLS configurations, SPF and DMARC email protections, but lacks some advanced security features such as HSTS and OCSP stapling. Privacy and cookie policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, with a clear cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the company demonstrates a mature digital presence with room for security enhancements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

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 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 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 readly.com

This scan found 16 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
92
Security headers
65
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
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

Readly operates in the media sector with a subscription business model focused on digital magazine distribution. Its competitive advantage lies in offering a large catalog of magazines with a single subscription, appealing to families and individual readers. The company maintains partnerships for business collaborations and press relations, and actively markets through social media and app stores. The presence of multiple country-specific subdomains indicates a global market approach. Revenue streams are primarily subscription fees. The company shows strategic use of analytics and marketing tools to optimize user engagement and conversion.

Security posture

The security posture of Readly is solid with implementation of TLS 1.2 using strong cipher suites, SPF and DMARC policies to protect email domains, and no detected subdomain takeover vulnerabilities. However, the absence of HSTS, OCSP stapling, and TLS 1.3 support indicates potential areas for improvement. No explicit security policy or incident response information is publicly available, which could impact transparency and trust. The lack of a security.txt file or data protection officer contact details suggests gaps in formal security communication and compliance documentation. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance its security maturity by adopting additional best practices and improving incident response visibility.

Recommendations

  1. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce HTTPS and prevent downgrade attacks.
  2. Implement OCSP stapling to improve SSL/TLS handshake performance and certificate revocation checking.
  3. Upgrade server support to include TLS 1.3 for enhanced security and performance benefits.
  4. Publish a security.txt file to provide clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response contact information.
  5. Provide explicit security policy and data protection officer contact details to improve compliance transparency and user trust.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Ruby on Rails 12.6.0 and uses a combination of modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Slick Carousel, and LazyLoad for UI and performance enhancements. Hosting is provided by AWS with Cloudfront CDN for content delivery. The site supports multiple country-specific subdomains with hreflang tags for SEO optimization. Performance is moderate with a page load time of approximately 5 seconds and a page size of 474 KB. Mobile optimization is good with responsive design and adaptive images. The technical stack is modern but could benefit from performance tuning and adoption of newer TLS protocols. No CMS is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary content management solution.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with readly.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review readly.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.