Signal Akron is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to providing local news for the Akron, Ohio community. Founded in 2023, it operates as part of a network of Signal Newsrooms, focusing on community engagement, local government, public safety, and cultural reporting. The organization relies on donations and reader support, offering newsletter subscriptions and opportunities for community members to contribute as documenters. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with integrations including Gravity Forms, HubSpot, Fundraise Up, and Google Analytics, reflecting a moderate level of digital maturity. The site is mobile-optimized and employs modern SEO practices but lacks explicit privacy and cookie policies, which impacts its privacy compliance score. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain registration protected by privacy services, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are absent. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced privacy disclosures and security hardening.
Scanned ·
NIS2 and GDPR posture
GDPR outside view
73/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7
NIS2 Art. 21(2)
a(a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
b(b) Incident handling: One indicator
c(c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
d(d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
e(e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
f(f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
g(g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
h(h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
i(i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
j(j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside
Partly checked
One indicator
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.
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 X-Frame-Options header
Prevents clickjacking attacks
What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"
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.
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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
52
Security headers
30
Email security
55
DNS health
80
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
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 signalakron.org, from OffSeq Breach.
No leaked records found
Breach holds no records for signalakron.org right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.
Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.
Business context
Business profile
Signal Akron positions itself as a vital local news source for Akron residents, leveraging a nonprofit business model supported by donations and community involvement. Its competitive advantage lies in hyperlocal journalism and community participation through documenters. The organization maintains a network relationship with other Signal Newsrooms, expanding its reach and resource sharing. Revenue streams primarily include donations facilitated by Fundraise Up and possibly grants. The target audience is local residents interested in civic affairs, education, public safety, and cultural events. The website's content and navigation support user engagement, though the absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels via forms. Partnerships with related Signal Newsrooms indicate a collaborative ecosystem. Growth indicators include active fundraising campaigns and newsletter subscriptions.
Security posture
The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain registration privacy protection in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options indicates room for improvement. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, which could hinder transparency and readiness in case of security incidents. The use of multiple third-party scripts and tracking pixels introduces potential privacy and security risks that require ongoing monitoring. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file further limits the site's security maturity. Overall, while no critical vulnerabilities are evident, enhancing security policies, headers, and transparency would strengthen the site's security posture.
Recommendations
Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with clear GDPR compliance statements.
Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
Add standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
Establish and publish an incident response contact channel and vulnerability disclosure policy.
Regularly audit and minimize third-party scripts to reduce privacy and security risks.
Site observations
Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.
Business
Company
Signal Akron
Description
Signal Akron is a nonprofit newsroom for all of Akron. We’re listening and our promise is to always provide residents with the news you need.
Key services
Local news publishing, Newsletter subscription, Community engagement via documenters, Fundraising/donations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent
Technology
Stack
WordPress, Gravity Forms, HubSpot, Fundraise Up, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Jetpack, Perfmatters
Frameworks
Yoast SEO
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good
Security
Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
HTTPS enabled
Use of security status domain statuses (clientDeleteProhibited etc.)
No DNSSEC (not enabled)
Analytics and tracking
Services
Google Analytics, HubSpot Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Parsely
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor
Advertising
Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Empower Local Adbundle
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, HubSpot Analytics, Parsely
Marketing tools
HubSpot, Fundraise Up
Transparency
basic
Site quality
Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate
Key observations
Website is a nonprofit local news organization focused on Akron, Ohio.
Content is rich with recent news articles and community engagement.
Multiple donation and newsletter subscription forms are present.
No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the homepage or main navigation.
Use of multiple third-party marketing and analytics tools.
No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via forms only.
Domain uses privacy protection service for WHOIS.
HTTPS is enabled and Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel are implemented.
No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
No security headers detected in provided data.
Technical notes
Notes
The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a modern tech stack including Gravity Forms for form management, HubSpot for marketing automation, Fundraise Up for donations, and Google Analytics for traffic analysis. The site uses Yoast SEO for search engine optimization and is hosted likely via GoDaddy based on registrar and nameservers. Performance is moderate with some deferred scripts and preloading optimizations. Mobile responsiveness is good, and accessibility features are basic but present. The site integrates multiple external domains for analytics, marketing, and advertising, which requires careful management to maintain privacy compliance. Technical debt appears low, but the absence of DNSSEC and security headers suggests opportunities for modernization and improved security.
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.
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