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Security report for short.io

SHORTCM inc · Technology · United States

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

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

Short.io is a well-established US-based technology company founded in 2009, specializing in white-label URL shortening services. It offers branded short URLs, analytics, and API integrations to over 1.2 million customers worldwide, processing 100 million redirects daily. The company targets businesses and marketers seeking to enhance brand recognition and link management capabilities. The website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, with consistent branding and positive trust indicators such as customer reviews and notable client logos. Technically, the site uses modern frameworks like Astro, integrates advanced analytics tools including Google Analytics and PostHog, and is hosted on AWS infrastructure, ensuring fast performance and mobile optimization. Security practices include HTTPS enforcement and domain transfer protection, though DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are absent. Privacy compliance is partially addressed via a cookie consent mechanism but lacks visible privacy and terms of service links. Overall, the site is trustworthy and business credible, with room for improvement in explicit policy disclosures and DNS security.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of short.io. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

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 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 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

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

Keep watching short.io

This scan found 12 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

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Full report

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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
100
Security headers
70
Email security
88
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
85

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention short.io, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
3,227
Employees
0
Customers
3,227
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
9%

6 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for short.io.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Short.io operates a SaaS business model focused on URL shortening and link management, serving a large customer base including major global brands. Its competitive advantage lies in offering white-label solutions with rich analytics and multiple integrations, appealing to marketing and branding professionals. The company’s longevity and domain age support its market credibility. The ecosystem includes blog and help subdomains, enhancing customer engagement and support. The absence of visible privacy and terms policies may be a minor compliance gap. The company’s digital maturity is high, leveraging modern technologies and analytics for data-driven insights. Growth indicators include extensive daily redirects and a broad international audience supported by multi-language site versions.

Security posture

The website exhibits a good security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer lock enabled. The use of cookie consent and reputable analytics tools indicates awareness of privacy and security best practices. However, the lack of DNSSEC and absence of published security policies or incident response contacts represent areas for enhancement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. The security score reflects a mature but improvable security framework. Recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing a security.txt file, and providing explicit security and incident response information to improve transparency and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish and link a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service on the main website.
  3. Create and maintain a security policy page including incident response contacts such as security@ or abuse@ emails.
  4. Consider obtaining and displaying recognized security certifications (e.g., ISO 27001) to enhance trust.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerable libraries are used.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
SHORTCM inc
Description
Short.io is a white-label link shortener that provides rich link management and detailed statistics. Short.io serves to a lot of customers for online and offline marketing, brand promotion and information sharing.
Key services
URL shortening, Branded short URLs, Analytics, API, Integrations with Chrome, Slack, Zapier, Segment
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, PostHog analytics, Google Tag Manager, iubenda cookie solution, Trustpilot widget
Frameworks
Astro (detected from CSS and JS file paths)
Platforms
AWS (inferred from AWS DNS nameservers)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by canonical URL and Google verification)
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Use of cookie consent mechanism

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, PostHog
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via gtag.js), PostHog
Marketing tools
Intercom
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional SaaS platform for branded URL shortening
  2. Strong brand presence with major clients and positive customer reviews
  3. Good technical implementation with modern frameworks and analytics
  4. Privacy and terms policies are not explicitly linked on homepage
  5. Security posture is good but could improve DNSSEC and explicit policies
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using modern web technologies including Astro framework, JavaScript, and integrates advanced analytics platforms like PostHog and Google Analytics. Hosting is provided by AWS, inferred from DNS nameservers, ensuring scalability and reliability. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and fast loading times. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags, canonical links, and multi-language support. Cookie consent is managed via the iubenda solution, indicating compliance efforts. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or static site generation approach. Technical risks are minimal, but the absence of DNSSEC and explicit security policies are noted as modernization opportunities.
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. 83/100Low21 findingsView report
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