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Security report for responsivewebdesign.com

Karen McGrane & Ethan Marcotte · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ResponsiveWebDesign.com is a niche educational website focused on responsive web design, originally defined by Ethan Marcotte. The site offers resources such as articles, books, workshops, newsletters, and a podcast aimed at web designers and developers interested in responsive design. The business operates as a small entity with a clear focus on education and community engagement in the web development sector. Technically, the site uses standard web technologies including HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and the Modernizr library, hosted on DigitalOcean. The website is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO practices, though performance is moderate. Security posture is adequate but could be improved by enabling DNSSEC and adding security headers. Privacy and cookie policies are absent, which impacts compliance and user trust. No contact information or incident response details are provided, limiting transparency. Overall, the domain is legitimate with a long registration history and no suspicious indicators.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching responsivewebdesign.com

This scan found 28 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

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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
58

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 website positions itself as an authoritative source on responsive web design, leveraging the reputation of Ethan Marcotte and Karen McGrane. Its business model centers on educational content delivery and workshops, targeting web professionals. The site maintains consistent branding and professional content quality, supporting a high trust level. There is no evidence of advertising or monetization beyond educational services. The partnership ecosystem is limited to references to related content providers. Growth indicators are not explicit but the domain age and content quality suggest stable operations.

Security posture

The current security maturity is moderate. The site uses HTTPS (implied by URL), but lacks DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security. No forms or inputs are present that collect sensitive data, reducing attack surface. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are available, which is a gap in security culture and readiness. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing policies. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. Recommendations include implementing DNSSEC, security headers, privacy policies, and incident response contacts to enhance security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  4. Add clear contact information including security incident response channels.
  5. Regularly audit and update JavaScript libraries and dependencies to avoid vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Karen McGrane & Ethan Marcotte
Description
The website is dedicated to Responsive Web Design, originally defined by Ethan Marcotte. It offers educational content including articles, books, in-house workshops, newsletters, and a podcast focused on responsive design.
Key services
In-house workshops, Email newsletter, Podcast about responsive design
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
Modernizr
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly provided.
  4. Site focuses on educational content about responsive web design.
  5. Uses Modernizr JavaScript library and hosted on DigitalOcean.
  6. No analytics or advertising scripts detected.
  7. No security headers detected in the HTML content.
  8. Domain is registered with a reputable registrar and has a long registration period.
  9. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a clean, modern tech stack with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, including the Modernizr library for feature detection. It is hosted on DigitalOcean, a reputable cloud provider. The site is mobile optimized and accessible with semantic HTML and ARIA landmarks. Performance is moderate, likely due to asynchronous loading of CSS and JS. No CMS or complex backend detected, indicating low technical debt. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. There is an opportunity to improve technical security by adding security headers and enabling DNSSEC.
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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