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Security report for romper.com

Media · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Romper is a media website focused on lifestyle, parenting, and family-related content, operating under the Bustle Digital Group umbrella. The site offers articles and media content aimed at a general audience interested in family and lifestyle topics. The website demonstrates a professional design with consistent branding and moderate content quality. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including React and CDN services, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. However, the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies, lack of security headers, and missing WHOIS domain registration data indicate gaps in security posture and compliance. These factors reduce the overall trustworthiness and raise concerns about domain legitimacy. Strategic improvements in security practices, privacy compliance, and domain transparency are recommended to enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

  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 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

  4. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain dev.romper.com points to unregistered service d2cg9qlji4dztl.cloudfront.net

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching romper.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

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

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Full report

€39.90one-time

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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
82
Security headers
45
Email security
85
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
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

Romper operates as a content publishing platform within the media industry, targeting general audiences interested in family and lifestyle topics. It benefits from association with Bustle Digital Group, a recognized media company, which likely provides content and advertising infrastructure. The business model centers on advertising revenue generated through integrated ad networks such as Google DoubleClick. The site’s market position is that of a niche lifestyle media outlet with moderate reach. No explicit business registration or contact information is publicly available, which limits direct business intelligence insights. The partnership ecosystem includes Bustle Digital Group’s CDN and ad services, but no other partner or subsidiary domains were identified.

Security posture

The website currently exhibits a basic security posture with HTTPS likely enabled (inferred from CDN usage and modern web practices), but no explicit security headers were detected in the HTML content. The absence of privacy and cookie policies, as well as lack of incident response contact information, indicates compliance gaps with GDPR and other privacy regulations. The missing WHOIS data for the domain raises concerns about domain registration transparency and legitimacy. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content, but the lack of security best practices such as security.txt and security headers suggests room for improvement. Overall, the security maturity level is moderate but requires enhancements to meet industry standards and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to ensure GDPR and privacy compliance.
  2. Add and configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance security posture.
  3. Verify domain registration details and ensure WHOIS data is accurate and publicly available to improve domain legitimacy and trust.
  4. Establish and publicize an incident response contact channel, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  5. Consider publishing a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
Romper is a media website likely focused on lifestyle content, parenting, and family topics, as inferred from the domain and typical content style of the hosting network (Bustle Digital Group).
Key services
online articles, media content, advertising
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, React (likely), CDN usage (cdn2.bustle.com, cdn2c.bustle.com), Google DoubleClick Ads
Frameworks
React (inferred)
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
50/100

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website content is accessible and not blocked by WAF or security mechanisms.
  2. WHOIS data is missing or not publicly available, which is a concern for domain legitimacy.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies were detected in the HTML content provided.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers were found in the HTML content.
  5. The site uses multiple Bustle Digital Group CDNs and ad services.
  6. No security headers or explicit security policies were detected in the HTML content.
  7. The site appears to be a media content platform focused on lifestyle and family topics.
  8. No adult or NSFW content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and likely React framework. It leverages multiple CDN domains under Bustle Digital Group for content delivery and uses Google DoubleClick for advertising. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and good navigation clarity. However, no explicit CMS was detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. Accessibility features are basic but present. SEO optimization is good with proper meta tags and structured content. Technical debt indicators are minimal based on the provided HTML snapshot, but security and compliance technical gaps exist.
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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