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Security report for spellingbee.com

The E.W. Scripps Company · Education · United States

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

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Scripps National Spelling Bee website represents a well-established educational competition with a rich history dating back to 1925. The site serves a diverse audience including students, educators, and regional partners by providing competition details, finalist information, historical content, and opportunities for engagement and donations. The business operates under the umbrella of The E.W. Scripps Company, a reputable media organization, reinforcing its credibility and market position in the education sector. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and leverages modern web technologies such as Alpine.js, Google Tag Manager, and CDN-hosted assets to enhance user experience and performance. The site is mobile-optimized and features good SEO and accessibility practices, although some accessibility features could be improved. Hosting is via Amazon AWS CloudFront, ensuring reliable content delivery. From a security perspective, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support HTTPS, which is a critical vulnerability that significantly lowers its security posture. While some security headers are present, the Content Security Policy is permissive, and no advanced SSL features like OCSP stapling or session resumption are enabled. Privacy compliance is reasonably addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanisms, but no explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is available. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy in content and business credibility but requires urgent improvements in SSL/TLS configuration to protect user data and enhance trust. Strategic security enhancements and transparency in incident response would further strengthen its risk profile.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

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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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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
100
Security headers
60
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
79

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 Scripps National Spelling Bee holds a dominant position in the U.S. educational competition market, leveraging a century-long legacy and strong brand recognition. Its business model focuses on non-profit educational outreach supported by sponsorships, partnerships, and fundraising initiatives such as the Beelieve fund. The target audience includes students, educators, parents, and regional partners, with a clear emphasis on accessibility and community engagement. The partnership ecosystem includes regional educational foundations and national sponsors, enhancing reach and impact. The website's content and structure reflect a mature digital presence aligned with organizational goals, supporting growth and stakeholder engagement.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of HTTPS and a valid SSL certificate, exposing users to potential data interception risks. Security headers are partially implemented but require tightening, especially the Content Security Policy. There is no public vulnerability disclosure or incident response information, indicating limited transparency in security operations. Compliance with GDPR is suggested by the presence of a privacy policy and cookie consent, but further documentation and contact points for security incidents are lacking. The lack of secure session management and modern TLS protocols further weakens the security posture, necessitating immediate remediation to protect user data and maintain trust.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Harden Content Security Policy to eliminate unsafe-inline and unsafe-eval directives.
  3. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact information.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly audit and update security headers and configurations to align with best practices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The E.W. Scripps Company
Technical notes

Notes

The website's infrastructure is modern and robust, utilizing Drupal 10 CMS, nginx web server on Ubuntu, and AWS CloudFront CDN for content delivery. Frontend technologies include Alpine.js for reactive components, Google Tag Manager for analytics, and various CSS and icon libraries for styling and UI consistency. Despite these strengths, the lack of HTTPS and SSL/TLS support is a critical technical deficiency. Performance metrics are unavailable, but the use of CDNs and asynchronous script loading suggests moderate to good performance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design elements, though accessibility could be improved. Technical debt appears low, but security misconfigurations pose operational risks.
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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