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Security report for stayfriends.de

Ströer Connections GmbH · Education · Germany

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

StayFriends.de is a well-established German social networking platform focused on reconnecting former school friends, viewing class photos, and organizing reunions. Operated by Ströer Connections GmbH, it serves a large user base with over 15 million members and extensive class photo archives. The platform targets German-speaking alumni and offers freemium services with paid subscription options. Technically, the website employs a modern JavaScript stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, and Google Tag Manager, with custom CMS elements. The site is moderately optimized for performance and mobile use, with good SEO and basic accessibility features. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and privacy consent mechanisms in place, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not published. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism and trustworthiness with consistent branding and comprehensive privacy compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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 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';…

  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

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching stayfriends.de

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

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
55
Email security
72
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
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

The company holds a strong market position in the education and media sectors within Germany, leveraging a niche social networking model for school alumni. Its business model combines free access with premium paid features, generating revenue through subscriptions and advertising partnerships, notably with T-Online and Ströer Digital Group. The presence of sister sites in Switzerland, Austria, France, and Sweden indicates a regional expansion strategy. The platform's extensive member base and rich content archives provide competitive advantages. Marketing and analytics tools are integrated to optimize user engagement and advertising effectiveness. The company maintains a professional online presence but could enhance transparency by publishing more detailed security and incident response information.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and privacy management tools implemented, including GDPR-compliant cookie consent. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and security.txt files indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. The use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened by adopting recognized frameworks and publishing formal security documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security practices and frameworks used.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and verify HTTP security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies for vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance mobile optimization and accessibility to improve user experience and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ströer Connections GmbH
Description
StayFriends.de is a platform to find old school friends, view class photos, organize reunions, and more. It offers a searchable database of 15 million members and over 1 million class photos.
Key services
School friend search, Class photo archives, Class reunion planning
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI 1.13.2, Bootstrap 3.3.1, Font Awesome 4.7.0, Google Tag Manager, Ströer Meta Tag scripts, Privacy Management SDK
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by canonical URL and external scripts loaded over HTTPS)
  • Privacy consent management implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Ströer Digital Group, Yieldlove
Marketing tools
Ströer Meta Tag scripts
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is in German and targeted at German-speaking users.
  3. Strong presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage or footer.
  5. Use of multiple external scripts for analytics and advertising.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response contact information published.
  7. No visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data in HTML content.
  8. Good SEO and metadata implementation.
  9. Consistent branding and professional design.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a combination of established front-end libraries including jQuery, jQuery UI, Bootstrap, and Font Awesome, supported by a custom CMS infrastructure. Google Tag Manager and Ströer advertising scripts are integrated for analytics and marketing. The site loads resources over HTTPS, ensuring secure data transmission. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in mobile responsiveness and accessibility. SEO is well addressed through meta tags and structured navigation. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require continuous monitoring. Opportunities exist to modernize the tech stack and improve security header implementation to reduce attack surface.
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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