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Security report for scpublicnotices.com

South Carolina Press Association · Government · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.scpublicnotices.com is a specialized platform operated by the South Carolina Press Association, providing searchable access to public notices across South Carolina counties and cities. It serves as a government-related information service aimed at enhancing public transparency and legal compliance. The platform uses ASP.NET Web Forms technology with some legacy libraries such as jQuery 2.2.4 and includes Google Analytics for visitor tracking. The site is mobile optimized and employs structured data for SEO benefits. However, it lacks visible privacy and cookie policies, which impacts its privacy compliance posture. Security-wise, HTTPS is enforced, but the absence of security headers and use of outdated libraries present areas for improvement. No contact emails or phone numbers are explicitly provided on the main page, which could affect user trust and support accessibility. Overall, the site is functional and trustworthy for its niche audience but would benefit from enhanced privacy disclosures and security hardening.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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. 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 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. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

    • 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

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

Keep watching scpublicnotices.com

This scan found 25 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

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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
62
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
62

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 South Carolina Press Association operates this site as a niche government-related service focusing on public notices. Its business model likely involves subscription or service fees for access to legal notices. The platform targets residents, legal professionals, and government entities in South Carolina. Its market position is that of a regional authoritative source for public notices, with a partner relationship to usalegalnotice.com, indicating a broader network of public notice services. The site’s content and structure reflect a focus on legal and governmental transparency rather than commercial sales or advertising. Growth opportunities may include expanding digital services, improving user engagement, and enhancing compliance with privacy regulations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and use of ASP.NET Web Forms security features like viewstate. However, it lacks modern security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security, which are recommended to mitigate common web vulnerabilities. The use of an outdated jQuery version (2.2.4) may expose the site to known vulnerabilities if not properly patched. No evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerabilities was found in the content. The absence of a security policy or incident response contact channels limits transparency in security management. Overall, the site is reasonably secure but requires updates and additional security controls to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Update jQuery and other JavaScript libraries to the latest secure versions.
  4. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  5. Provide clear contact information including support emails and phone numbers for user assistance and incident reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
South Carolina Press Association
Description
The website provides access to public notices for South Carolina, facilitating search and retrieval of legal and governmental public notices across various counties and cities in South Carolina. It serves as a platform for public transparency and legal compliance.
Key services
Searchable public notices, Advanced search for legal notices, Access to county and city-specific notices
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
ASP.NET Web Forms, jQuery 2.2.4, Modernizr 1.7, Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager (gtag.js)
Frameworks
ASP.NET
Platforms
Windows Server (implied by ASP.NET usage)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of hidden fields and viewstate for form security

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via gtag.js)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a specialized public notice search platform for South Carolina.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies are visibly linked or found in the content.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly provided on the main page.
  4. Uses ASP.NET Web Forms technology with some outdated libraries (jQuery 2.2.4).
  5. Includes Google Analytics for tracking but lacks visible privacy compliance notices.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. No social media links detected in the provided content.
  8. Good mobile optimization and SEO practices observed.
  9. No adult or questionable content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on ASP.NET Web Forms, indicating a mature but somewhat legacy technology stack. It uses jQuery 2.2.4 and Modernizr 1.7 for frontend enhancements, Google Fonts for typography, and Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site is mobile responsive and includes structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO. Performance is moderate, with some potential for improvement by updating libraries and optimizing scripts. Accessibility features are basic, and SEO optimization is good with proper meta tags and canonical links. Hosting details are not explicitly found but likely on a Windows-based server due to ASP.NET usage. Technical risks include outdated JavaScript libraries and missing security headers, which should be addressed to improve security and performance.
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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