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Security report for rheinwerk.de

Rheinwerk Verlag GmbH · Education · Germany

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Rheinwerk Verlag GmbH is a specialized German publisher focusing on IT, design, and photography educational content. The company offers a broad range of products including print and digital books, digital subscription services (Rheinwerk 365), and educational events such as seminars and conferences. Their market position is strong within the German-speaking education sector, targeting IT professionals, designers, photographers, and learners. The website reflects a mature digital infrastructure utilizing modern JavaScript libraries and asynchronous loading techniques to enhance user experience and performance. Privacy and compliance are well addressed with comprehensive GDPR-aligned privacy and cookie policies, including a granular cookie consent mechanism. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and CSRF protections in place, though some security headers could be improved. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-optimized for SEO and accessibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 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

2 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. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching rheinwerk.de

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.

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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
72
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
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

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 rheinwerk.de, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for rheinwerk.de right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

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 a diversified business model combining traditional publishing with digital subscriptions and event management. Their offerings cater to a niche but broad audience of IT and creative professionals. The presence of multiple subscription tiers and event types indicates a strategic approach to recurring revenue and community engagement. Partnerships such as with rheinwerk-dmc.de for marketing events enhance their ecosystem. The company maintains a consistent brand presence and demonstrates compliance with European data protection regulations, which supports customer trust and market credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with HTTPS, CSRF tokens, and a detailed cookie consent mechanism. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not found, which could be improved. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and various tracking pixels is disclosed and managed via consent, aligning with GDPR requirements. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Security headers could be more comprehensive to further harden the site against common web attacks.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce additional security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and provide clear incident response contact information (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email).
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance transparency by providing terms of service and vulnerability disclosure policies on the website.
  5. Continue to monitor and optimize website performance and accessibility to maintain high user experience standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Rheinwerk Verlag GmbH
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Rheinwerk Verlag GmbH
Description
Rheinwerk is a leading publisher specializing in IT, design, and photography books. They provide educational materials for beginners and experts, including books, e-books, bundles, courses, seminars, and conferences.
Key services
Book publishing (print and digital), Digital subscription service Rheinwerk 365, Online and live seminars and conferences, E-commerce platform for book sales
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
RequireJS, Knockout.js, Google Tag Manager, Flowplayer, Swiper.js, Lightbox2
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF token usage in forms
  • Cookie consent with granular control
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Twitter Website-Tag
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Comprehensive cookie consent with detailed cookie categories and third-party disclosures.
  2. Strong focus on GDPR compliance and user privacy.
  3. Use of modern JavaScript libraries and asynchronous loading for performance.
  4. Clear navigation structure with detailed topic categories.
  5. Multiple event and subscription offerings indicating diversified business model.
  6. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content.
  7. No explicit security or incident response contact information found on the site.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses RequireJS for modular JavaScript loading, Knockout.js for MVVM bindings, and integrates several third-party libraries such as Swiper.js for sliders, Lightbox2 for image viewing, and Flowplayer for media playback. Google Tag Manager is used to manage analytics and marketing tags, including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Twitter Website-Tag, and Microsoft Advertising. The site is served over HTTPS with static assets hosted on a CDN (static.rheinwerk-verlag.de and Amazon S3). The HTML structure is semantic with ARIA labels and accessibility considerations. Performance is moderate with asynchronous script loading and responsive design. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform.
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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