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Security report for storyist.com

Storyist Software · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Storyist Software operates a niche writing software business targeting novelists and screenwriters with products for macOS and iOS. The company offers a specialized writing environment that supports manuscript formatting, story organization, and cloud accessibility. The website reflects a mature, small-sized technology company with a consistent brand and positive trust signals such as testimonials and social media presence. Technically, the site uses modern frontend technologies including Bootstrap and jQuery, hosted on AWS infrastructure, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is moderate with some gaps such as lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism or GDPR indicators. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy but could improve in security and privacy transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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"

    • 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';…

  2. 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

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

Keep watching storyist.com

This scan found 25 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
67
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
55

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

Storyist holds a strong position in the specialized software market for writers, leveraging a focused business model selling software products for Apple platforms. The company benefits from a long domain history and positive user testimonials, indicating customer satisfaction and market acceptance. Partnerships such as with Blurb suggest ecosystem integration. The absence of phone contact and physical address online suggests a lean operation focused on digital sales and support. Growth potential lies in expanding privacy compliance and security transparency to meet evolving regulatory demands.

Security posture

The security maturity level is moderate. The domain is protected against unauthorized transfers but lacks DNSSEC and security headers, which are important for preventing DNS spoofing and clickjacking attacks. No incident response or security policies are published, limiting transparency. The site uses HTTPS (implied by Google Analytics and modern standards) but SSL configuration details are unknown. No forms are present to expose input vulnerabilities. Privacy compliance gaps include missing cookie consent and GDPR indicators. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a small software vendor but improvements are recommended to reduce risk and enhance customer trust.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to secure DNS queries and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and detailed cookie policy to improve privacy compliance.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  5. Conduct a security audit of SSL/TLS configuration and ensure HTTPS enforcement site-wide.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Storyist Software
Description
Storyist provides a powerful writing environment for novelists and screenwriters, offering tools to produce submission-ready manuscripts and screenplays, organize story elements, and access writing projects via cloud storage.
Key services
Rich text editor with manuscript and screenplay templates, Story organization tools (index cards, plot, character, setting sheets), Cloud storage for project accessibility
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery 2.1.0, Bootstrap 3.1.1, Google Analytics, Adobe Typekit Fonts
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
macOS, iOS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited to prevent unauthorized transfers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Adobe Typekit
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 rich content and no blocking mechanisms.
  2. No forms detected on the homepage or main content to collect user data.
  3. Contact email is provided but no phone number or physical address found.
  4. No cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy found.
  5. Social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube is linked.
  6. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  7. Use of Google Analytics indicates user tracking but no explicit privacy controls.
  8. No terms of service page detected.
  9. Website uses modern frontend technologies but lacks some security headers.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built with a modern and stable technology stack including HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap 3.1.1, jQuery 2.1.0, and Adobe Typekit fonts. It is hosted on AWS infrastructure as indicated by DNS servers. Performance is moderate with responsive design and mobile optimization present. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). No CMS is detected, indicating a custom or static site approach. Technical debt appears low but security enhancements are needed. The site lacks advanced accessibility features but meets basic standards. Overall, the technical implementation supports a professional user experience but can be modernized with updated libraries and security best practices.
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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