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Security report for stgallenbusinessreview.com

ESPRIT St.Gallen · Media · Switzerland

Critical risk. 12 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 3 other checks.

Security score

23/100

Risk levelCritical

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

St. Gallen Business Review is a student-run business magazine published by ESPRIT St.Gallen, affiliated with the University of St.Gallen. It provides independent journalism focused on business, entrepreneurship, finance, economics, politics, and sustainability. The website features a membership program (SGBR+) offering exclusive early access to content. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern plugins and libraries, delivering a good user experience with mobile responsiveness and clear navigation. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled but lacks security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies. No direct contact emails or phone numbers are provided, but a contact form is available. The domain registration details align with the business claims, supporting legitimacy.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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

12 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

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  4. 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

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

Keep watching stgallenbusinessreview.com

This scan found 27 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
0
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
60
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
10
Average
23

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 · found on this site
  • 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 stgallenbusinessreview.com, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for stgallenbusinessreview.com right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

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 targets students, academics, and business professionals interested in independent business journalism. Its non-profit model relies on memberships and student contributions. The affiliation with the University of St.Gallen and a long publication history since 1996 position it as a credible source in its niche. The content covers diverse sectors including business, politics, sustainability, and entrepreneurship, reflecting a broad editorial scope. The limited social media presence (LinkedIn only) suggests a focused professional outreach. No advertising or tracking services are evident, indicating a privacy-conscious approach.

Security posture

The site uses HTTPS with valid SSL certificates, ensuring encrypted communication. However, the absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces protection against certain web attacks. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The contact form is implemented via Contact Form 7, a widely used and maintained plugin, but no explicit security or spam protection details are visible. The lack of a security policy or incident response information indicates room for improvement in security governance and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with consent mechanisms to enhance GDPR compliance.
  2. Add security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve web security.
  3. Provide explicit incident response and vulnerability disclosure information to build trust and readiness.
  4. Regularly audit and update WordPress plugins and themes to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and provide clear contact information including emails or phone numbers for better user support.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ESPRIT St.Gallen
Description
The St. Gallen Business Review is a student-produced magazine published since 1996 by ESPRIT St.Gallen, the student consultancy at the University of St.Gallen. It covers topics in business, entrepreneurship, finance, economics, politics, and sustainability, featuring interviews and articles by professionals and academics.
Key services
Publishing business and political articles, Student journalism, Membership program (SGBR+), Interviews and expert insights
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, jQuery 3.7.1, Contact Form 7 plugin, Instagram Feed plugin, Google Fonts, Flickity carousel, Magnific Popup, FitVids
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
PHP, MySQL (implied by WordPress)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of modern WordPress version
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a WordPress-based student journalism platform for business and political topics.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in the HTML content.
  3. Contact form present for user communication; no direct emails or phone numbers found.
  4. Social media presence limited to LinkedIn.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  6. No security headers detected in the HTML content.
  7. HTTPS is used with valid SSL certificates.
  8. Content is well structured with multiple articles and categories.
  9. No advertising or tracking scripts detected beyond standard plugins.
  10. Mobile responsive design with good navigation and user experience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 with jQuery and several plugins including Contact Form 7 and Instagram Feed. It uses Google Fonts and modern front-end libraries like Flickity and Magnific Popup. The HTML and CSS are valid and well-structured, supporting responsive design and good SEO practices. Performance is moderate with no heavy external scripts detected. Hosting provider details are not explicit. The site uses a custom theme 'fox' and a child theme, indicating customization. No CDN or advanced caching mechanisms were identified from the HTML content.
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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