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Security report for sandiegouniontribune.com

San Diego Union-Tribune · Media · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The San Diego Union-Tribune is a prominent regional news media organization serving San Diego County and surrounding areas. It provides comprehensive local news, sports coverage, event information, and subscription-based digital newspaper services. The website is professionally designed, leveraging modern web technologies including WordPress CMS, Google Tag Manager, and third-party SDKs for content delivery and user engagement. Privacy and cookie consent mechanisms are implemented in compliance with GDPR standards, reflecting a mature approach to user data protection. However, the absence of publicly available WHOIS data suggests domain privacy protection, which is common but slightly reduces transparency. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though additional security headers and a published security policy would enhance trust. Overall, the website demonstrates a solid digital presence with good content quality and user experience, suitable for its target audience of local news consumers.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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 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"

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching sandiegouniontribune.com

This scan found 26 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
42
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
65

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 San Diego Union-Tribune operates as a large media entity under the parent company Digital First Media (SCNG). Its business model centers on digital news publishing with revenue streams from subscriptions, advertising, and e-newspaper sales. The site targets residents and visitors of San Diego County, offering localized content that differentiates it from national outlets. The use of advanced analytics and marketing tools indicates a data-driven approach to audience engagement and monetization. Partnerships with advertising networks and marketing platforms support its commercial objectives. The company maintains a consistent brand identity and leverages multiple digital channels to maintain market position in a competitive media landscape.

Security posture

The website exhibits a good security posture with HTTPS enabled and cookie consent mechanisms in place, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. The use of Auth0 for authentication adds a layer of secure user management. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of certain security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and a publicly available security policy or incident response contact reduces the overall security maturity. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file. Enhancing these areas would improve incident response readiness and user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and provide incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet WCAG standards for broader compliance.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and SDKs to mitigate supply chain risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
San Diego Union-Tribune
Description
Sandiegouniontribune.com covers local news in San Diego County, CA, California and national news, sports, things to do and the best places to eat, business and the San Diego housing market.
Key services
Local news reporting, Sports coverage, Event listings, E-Newspaper editions, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress CMS, Google Tag Manager, Auth0 for authentication, Osano for cookie consent, Marfeel SDK, Sophi SDK, Bootstrap Icons, jQuery, Google One Tap Sign-In
Frameworks
WordPress, Marfeel, Sophi
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • Use of authentication via Auth0
  • No exposed sensitive data detected in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Parsely, BlueConic
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Revcontent, Google Ad Manager
Tracking pixels
Parsely, BlueConic
Marketing tools
Marfeel SDK, Sophi SDK, Listrak
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional regional news media outlet for San Diego area.
  2. Content is rich with local news, sports, and events.
  3. Cookie consent and privacy policies are implemented and accessible.
  4. No security policy or incident response contact found publicly.
  5. WHOIS data is not available, indicating privacy protection or domain registration issues.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  7. No adult or questionable content detected.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with integration of multiple third-party SDKs such as Marfeel and Sophi for content optimization and user engagement. Google Tag Manager and analytics services are used extensively for data collection and marketing. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses modern fonts and icon libraries. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in load times by optimizing third-party scripts. The technical infrastructure supports a robust digital news platform but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and accessibility improvements to reduce technical debt and future-proof the 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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