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Security report for smh.com.au

The Sydney Morning Herald · Media · Australia

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

86/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a leading Australian news media organization providing comprehensive breaking news, world news, and local coverage through its digital platform smh.com.au. It operates under the parent company Nine Entertainment Co., positioning itself as a major player in the Australian media landscape with a business model focused on digital subscriptions and advertising revenue. The website targets a general audience seeking reliable news content. Technically, the site employs a modern technology stack including JavaScript frameworks, multiple analytics and advertising integrations, and is hosted on AWS Cloudfront CDN, ensuring good performance and mobile optimization. Security-wise, SMH demonstrates a strong posture with HTTPS enforcement, robust security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities. Privacy compliance is well addressed with comprehensive privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. However, there is no publicly available security policy or vulnerability disclosure program, which could be improved to enhance trust and incident response readiness. Overall, SMH presents a professional, trustworthy, and secure digital presence appropriate for its enterprise scale and media industry.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

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Keep watching smh.com.au

This scan found 13 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
90
Security headers
85
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
86

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 smh.com.au, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,684
Employees
0
Customers
1,643
Third parties
41
Weak passwords
18%

30 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 smh.com.au.

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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

SMH holds a strong market position as a premier Australian news publisher with a broad audience reach. Its competitive advantage lies in its established brand, extensive content offerings, and integration within the Nine Entertainment media group. Revenue streams include digital subscriptions, advertising, and partnerships. The target customer segments are general news consumers in Australia and globally interested in Australian affairs. Growth indicators include digital transformation efforts and adoption of modern analytics and marketing tools. The partnership ecosystem includes major advertising networks and analytics providers. Strategic observations suggest continued investment in digital user experience and privacy compliance will sustain market leadership.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and multiple security headers implemented, reducing common web vulnerabilities. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analysis. The use of third-party scripts is extensive but from reputable sources. Compliance with privacy regulations is evident through detailed policies and consent mechanisms. However, the absence of a public security policy, incident response contact, and vulnerability disclosure program represents gaps in transparency and readiness. Enhancing these areas would improve security culture and stakeholder trust. Overall, the risk level is low with recommendations focused on formalizing security governance and disclosure.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan accessible to users.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program including a security.txt file.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts for vulnerabilities and minimize tracking where possible.
  4. Enhance transparency by providing direct security contact channels (e.g., security@ domain).
  5. Continue improving privacy compliance with clear data retention and user rights information.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Sydney Morning Herald
Description
The Sydney Morning Herald is a major Australian news media website providing breaking news, headlines, and world news online.
Key services
news publishing, digital subscription, advertising
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Snowplow Analytics, Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Tinypass (Piano), LinkedIn Insight Tag, Facebook Pixel, Nielsen SDK
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Snowplow Analytics, Chartbeat, Google Analytics (via GTM), Nielsen
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ads, Rubicon Project, Google AdSense/DoubleClick, Bing Ads
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight, Facebook Pixel, Nielsen SDK, Snowplow Analytics
Marketing tools
Tinypass (Piano)
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major Australian news media outlet with extensive content.
  2. No evidence of blocking or WAF challenges.
  3. Uses multiple third-party advertising and analytics services.
  4. Strong security posture with HTTPS and security headers.
  5. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies present.
  6. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML but contact page exists.
  7. No public security or incident response policy found.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt detected.
  9. Content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The technical infrastructure is robust, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries, tag management, and cloud CDN hosting for scalability and performance. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. SEO practices are well implemented with proper meta tags and structured data. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization in script loading and resource management. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require ongoing security monitoring. Opportunities exist to streamline analytics and advertising integrations to reduce complexity and improve load times.
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. 86/100Low20 findingsView report
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