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Security report for southsideweekly.com

South Side Weekly · Media · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

South Side Weekly is a community-focused newspaper serving Chicago's South Side, providing news, arts, culture, and political coverage since 2013. The website is built on a modern WordPress infrastructure using the Newspack theme and various plugins to enhance SEO, user experience, and content management. The site integrates donation and subscription services through trusted third-party platforms, supporting its community-driven business model. Technically, the site is well-structured with good mobile optimization and SEO practices, though some improvements in accessibility and security headers could be made. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and domain protections, but lacks DNSSEC and explicit security policies. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism detected. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and serves its niche audience effectively.

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

5 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 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, Twitter, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

  2. 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

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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
80
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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 website positions itself as a vital local media outlet for Chicago's South Side community, leveraging a mix of advertising, donations, and subscriptions for revenue. Its partnership ecosystem includes payment processors and newsletter providers, enhancing its operational capabilities. The content strategy focuses on community engagement, investigative journalism, and cultural reporting, which strengthens its market position. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers on the homepage suggests a preference for controlled communication channels, possibly to manage inquiries efficiently. The site’s longevity and consistent branding indicate stable operations and community trust.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate and domain status flags that prevent unauthorized domain transfers or deletions, indicating good domain security hygiene. However, the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options represent areas for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is provided, which could be a gap in transparency and readiness. The use of reputable plugins and hosting by DreamHost adds to the security baseline, but regular audits and enhancements are recommended to maintain and improve security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve overall DNS security.
  2. Implement standard security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and cookie policy to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible security reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve usability for all users and comply with accessibility standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
South Side Weekly
Description
Community newspaper by and for Chicago's South Side. Arts, Culture, Politics. Est. 2013.
Key services
Local news reporting, Community investigations, Arts and culture coverage, Advertising services, Newsletter subscription, Print edition subscription, Events coverage
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, Yoast SEO Premium, Newspack Theme, Newspack Blocks, Jetpack, AdRotate Professional, Mailchimp for WP, Parsely analytics, jQuery, Google Fonts
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Self-hosted WordPress site
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security plugins (Jetpack)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Parsely, Jetpack Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
AdRotate Professional
Tracking pixels
Parsely, Jetpack Stats
Marketing tools
Mailchimp
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a community newspaper focused on Chicago's South Side.
  2. Content is rich with articles, images, and multimedia embeds.
  3. Multiple social media channels are linked and active.
  4. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content.
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners detected.
  6. Use of modern WordPress plugins and SEO tools.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible on homepage.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 using the Newspack theme, optimized with Yoast SEO Premium for search engine visibility. It integrates multiple plugins for advertising, newsletters, and analytics, including AdRotate Professional and Parsely. Hosting is provided by DreamHost, with DNS managed through DreamHost name servers. The site demonstrates good mobile responsiveness and SEO optimization but could benefit from improved accessibility and performance tuning. The presence of multiple external scripts and tracking pixels indicates moderate user tracking, which should be balanced with privacy considerations.
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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