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Security report for signalcleveland.org

Signal Cleveland · Media · United States

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Signal Cleveland is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to serving the Greater Cleveland community with local news and resources. Founded recently in 2022, it operates with a mission to provide accessible, community-focused journalism covering government, housing, education, and public safety. The organization relies on donations and community support, as evidenced by donation appeals and fundraising campaigns on the website. The site is well-branded and maintains consistent messaging aligned with its nonprofit media identity. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using the Newspack theme, leveraging modern tools such as Gravity Forms for data collection, Yoast SEO for search optimization, and integrations with HubSpot, Fundraise Up, and Parsely for marketing and analytics. Hosting is provided by Automattic Inc., consistent with WordPress.com infrastructure. The site demonstrates moderate performance and good mobile optimization, though accessibility features are basic. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and has domain transfer protections enabled, but lacks DNSSEC and security headers such as CSP or HSTS. No privacy or cookie policies were found, indicating gaps in compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is published. Tracking and advertising scripts are present, including Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, with moderate user tracking. Overall, Signal Cleveland presents a credible and professional nonprofit media presence with solid technical foundations but requires improvements in privacy compliance and security best practices to enhance trust and regulatory adherence.

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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • 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

  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 signalcleveland.org

This scan found 23 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
52
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
67

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

Signal Cleveland occupies a niche as a local nonprofit news provider in the Cleveland metropolitan area, targeting residents seeking community news and resources. Its business model centers on nonprofit funding through donations, supported by fundraising campaigns and a free daily newsletter subscription. The organization is part of a broader network of Signal newsrooms across Ohio, indicating strategic partnerships and regional expansion. The website's content strategy focuses on relevant local topics such as government, housing, education, and public safety, positioning it as a trusted community resource. The use of modern digital marketing and analytics tools suggests a data-driven approach to audience engagement and growth. However, the absence of explicit privacy and security policies may impact user trust and compliance with evolving regulations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic to moderate security posture. HTTPS is enforced, and the domain status includes clientTransferProhibited, which helps prevent unauthorized domain transfers. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which could expose the domain to DNS spoofing risks. The absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces protection against common web attacks like clickjacking and cross-site scripting. No sensitive information or credentials were exposed in the HTML content. Forms use Gravity Forms, a reputable plugin, but no explicit security or privacy notices accompany data collection. The lack of published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies indicates limited preparedness for security incidents. Tracking scripts and ad networks are present, increasing the attack surface and privacy risks. Overall, the site should enhance security headers, enable DNSSEC, and publish clear security and privacy policies to improve its security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement essential security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies clearly accessible on the website to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Establish and publish an incident response plan and vulnerability disclosure policy to improve transparency and readiness.
  5. Review and minimize third-party tracking scripts to reduce privacy risks and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Signal Cleveland
Description
Signal Cleveland is a nonprofit newsroom serving Greater Cleveland. They provide local news and resources focused on government, housing, education, public safety, and community events.
Key services
Local news reporting, Community resources, Newsletter subscription, Public meeting briefs, Podcasts
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Gravity Forms, Yoast SEO, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Fundraise Up, Parsely, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel
Frameworks
Newspack WordPress Theme
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Parsely
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, Empower Local
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Parsely
Marketing tools
HubSpot, Fundraise Up
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a nonprofit local news outlet focused on Cleveland area.
  2. Content is rich with news articles, community resources, and donation appeals.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in the provided content.
  4. Multiple social media profiles linked and active.
  5. Uses modern WordPress-based tech stack with common marketing and analytics tools.
  6. No security headers detected; DNSSEC not enabled.
  7. Domain registration uses privacy proxy but is consistent with hosting provider.
  8. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found; contact form present.
  9. No visible security or incident response policies.
  10. Advertising and tracking scripts present but no affiliate programs detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using the Newspack theme optimized for news publishers. It integrates multiple third-party services including HubSpot for marketing automation, Fundraise Up for donations, Parsely for content analytics, and Google Analytics for traffic monitoring. The site uses Gravity Forms for user data collection, primarily newsletter subscriptions. Hosting and DNS are managed by Automattic Inc., consistent with WordPress.com infrastructure. Performance is moderate with some optimizations such as image preloading and lazy loading. Mobile responsiveness is good, but accessibility features are basic and could be improved. SEO is enhanced by Yoast SEO plugin with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) for rich snippets. Overall, the technical stack is robust for a small nonprofit media site but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and privacy compliance features.
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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