Skip to main content

Security report for scmp.com

South China Morning Post · Media · Hong Kong

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

South China Morning Post is a well-established media organization based in Hong Kong, founded in 1903. It serves as a premier English language newspaper with a focus on news, opinions, and insights related to China, Hong Kong, and Asia. The website offers a comprehensive range of content including geopolitics, economy, technology, and lifestyle, targeting an affluent and influential readership. The business model is primarily based on digital news publishing, subscription services, and advertising revenue. The company maintains a strong market position as a leading news source in the region. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies such as React and Next.js, supported by robust analytics and advertising frameworks including Google Tag Manager, Amazon Publisher Services, and Prebid.js. The site demonstrates good performance, excellent mobile optimization, and strong SEO practices. Security measures include HTTPS enforcement, security headers, and monitoring tools like Sentry, contributing to a solid security posture. The security evaluation reveals no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of a public security.txt and incident response contact information suggests areas for improvement in vulnerability disclosure and incident management. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies, including GDPR considerations. Business credibility is high, supported by transparent contact information, comprehensive policies, and consistent branding. Overall, the website presents a professional, trustworthy, and secure platform for news dissemination. Strategic recommendations include implementing a security.txt file, publishing incident response contacts, and continuous auditing of third-party scripts to maintain security and compliance standards.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of scmp.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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

4 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 Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  3. DNS health

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

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: mg1-tp-scmp.scmp.com

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • 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 scmp.com

This scan found 16 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

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
100
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
79

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

South China Morning Post holds a dominant position in the Hong Kong and broader Asian media market, leveraging its long history and reputation for authoritative reporting. Its competitive advantage lies in its affluent and influential audience, comprehensive coverage of regional issues, and a diversified content offering including multimedia and subscription services. Revenue streams are primarily from advertising and subscriptions. The company maintains an extensive partnership ecosystem with major advertising and analytics providers. Growth indicators include a strong digital presence and adoption of modern web technologies. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining editorial independence and expanding digital monetization avenues.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, presence of key security headers, and use of monitoring tools like Sentry. No exposed credentials or vulnerable libraries were detected. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are in place, supporting GDPR compliance. However, the lack of a dedicated vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact details indicates gaps in formal security governance. The extensive use of third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security culture appears proactive but could benefit from enhanced transparency and formalized incident response processes.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information to improve security communication and trust.
  3. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and dependencies to prevent supply chain vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data retention policies and user rights in accessible formats.
  5. Strengthen user trust by showcasing certifications or security accreditations where applicable.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
South China Morning Post
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
South China Morning Post
Description
First published in 1903, South China Morning Post is Hong Kong's premier English language newspaper and has the city's most affluent and influential readership. With a reputation for authoritative, influential and independent reporting on Hong Kong and China. The newspaper is supported with its online publication scmp.com and its Sunday edition, Sunday Morning Post.
Key services
News reporting, Opinion pieces, Infographics, Videos, Subscription content
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Amazon Publisher Services, Prebid.js, Sentry
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Lazy loading ads
  • Use of security monitoring (Sentry)
  • No exposed sensitive data found

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Mouseflow, LinkedIn Insight
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Publisher Services, Google AdSense/DoubleClick, StackAdapt
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, ScorecardResearch, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Mouseflow
Marketing tools
Optimizely
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and professional design
  2. Strong presence of privacy and terms policies indicating compliance
  3. Use of modern web technologies and advertising networks
  4. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges
  5. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to privacy protection
  6. Contact information includes verified phone and physical address
  7. Social media presence is robust and verified
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern React/Next.js framework, ensuring server-side rendering and good SEO performance. It integrates multiple advertising and analytics platforms, including Amazon Publisher Services and Google Analytics, indicating a complex but well-managed tech stack. Performance is moderate, with optimizations such as lazy loading for ads. Mobile optimization and accessibility are strong, reflecting a user-centric design approach. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary content management solution. Hosting details are not explicitly available but the use of multiple CDNs and preconnect hints indicates a distributed and scalable infrastructure. Technical risks include dependency on numerous third-party scripts which require vigilant security monitoring.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 79/100Low23 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with scmp.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review scmp.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.