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Security report for rte.ie

Raidió Teilifís Éireann · Media · Ireland

High risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) is Ireland's national public service broadcaster, providing television, radio, and online media services primarily to the Irish public. The organization holds a leading market position in the Irish media sector, operating as a large entity with a mature domain registered since 2000. The website is currently inaccessible due to a Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA challenge, which blocks content access and prevents a full analysis of the site's content and policies. The technical infrastructure relies on Cloudflare for security and performance, but the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support is a critical security gap. The DNS configuration lacks DNSSEC and has malformed CAA records, further indicating security weaknesses. The website performance is poor with slow load times and minimal content visible due to the security challenge. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies are detectable in the accessible content, and no contact information or forms are present. The WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy and maturity, consistent with a well-established national broadcaster. Overall, the security posture is weak, and the site requires urgent improvements in SSL deployment and security header implementation to ensure user trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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';…

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Keep watching rte.ie

This scan found 15 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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  • 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
0
Security headers
70
Email security
50
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
49

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

RTÉ operates as a public service broadcaster funded by license fees and commercial revenue, targeting the general Irish population and diaspora. Its market position as the leading national broadcaster is supported by a mature domain and consistent registration data. The business model focuses on media content delivery across multiple platforms, including television, radio, and online. The lack of visible business contact information and policies on the website limits transparency and user engagement. The partnership ecosystem includes Cloudflare for security and performance services. Growth indicators and subsidiary information are not available from the blocked content. Strategic observations suggest a need for improved digital presence and transparency to maintain competitive advantage and public trust.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of HTTPS and a valid SSL certificate, exposing users to potential interception risks. The website is protected by Cloudflare's WAF with a Turnstile CAPTCHA challenge, which provides some defense against automated attacks but also blocks content access for analysis. DNSSEC is not enabled, and CAA records are malformed, indicating gaps in DNS security. No security headers are detected, and session resumption and OCSP stapling are disabled, reducing TLS performance and security. There are no visible compliance indicators for GDPR or incident response contacts. The lack of domain protection locks increases risk of unauthorized domain transfers. Overall, the site requires significant improvements in SSL deployment, DNS security, and security header implementation to enhance its security posture and compliance readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Deploy and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or 1.3) and disable all insecure protocols.
  3. Implement HSTS with includeSubDomains and preload options to enforce HTTPS usage.
  4. Configure DNSSEC and correct CAA records to strengthen DNS security.
  5. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  6. Establish and publish privacy, cookie, and terms of service policies to improve compliance and transparency.
  7. Provide clear contact information including security incident response contacts.
  8. Review and enable domain protection locks to prevent unauthorized domain transfers.
  9. Optimize website performance and ensure mobile and accessibility best practices.
  10. Consider reducing or customizing WAF challenge to improve user experience while maintaining security.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is hosted behind Cloudflare, which provides CDN and security services including a Turnstile CAPTCHA challenge that currently blocks access to the site content. The SSL configuration is absent, with no valid certificate and no TLS protocols enabled, resulting in HTTP-only access which is insecure. DNS records show no DNSSEC and malformed CAA records, indicating DNS security misconfigurations. The site load time is very slow (over 11 seconds) despite minimal content, likely due to the challenge page and Cloudflare processing. No CMS or frameworks are detectable from the limited content. No analytics or advertising scripts are present in the blocked content. The site lacks SEO optimization and accessibility features cannot be assessed due to blocked content. Overall, the technical infrastructure requires modernization and security hardening to meet current web standards and user expectations.
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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