Skip to main content

Security report for stringsbymail.com

Strings By Mail · Retail · United States

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

Strings By Mail is an established online retailer specializing in guitar and orchestral strings, accessories, sheet music, and related musical products. The website targets musicians and music enthusiasts, offering a broad catalog including classical, acoustic, electric, and bass guitar strings, as well as orchestral strings and instructional materials. The business operates primarily as an e-commerce platform with additional services such as a subscription string delivery service. The company maintains a strong market position within its niche, supported by trust indicators like customer testimonials and security seals. Technically, the website is built on the Zen Cart e-commerce platform and utilizes a variety of JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Owl Carousel, and Yotpo for reviews. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO and accessibility basics, though some libraries are outdated which may pose security risks. HTTPS is enforced, and security best practices such as Google reCAPTCHA are implemented, but advanced security headers are not explicitly detected. From a security perspective, the site shows a moderate security posture with no visible critical vulnerabilities but could improve by updating libraries and enhancing security headers. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no visible cookie consent mechanism. WHOIS data is missing or indicates the domain may not be currently registered, which is a significant concern for domain legitimacy and trust. Overall, the website is professional and functional with good content quality and user experience. However, the lack of WHOIS registration data and outdated technical components suggest areas for improvement in security and trustworthiness. Strategic recommendations include updating technical components, enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent, and investigating domain registration status to ensure legitimacy.

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

4 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 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

  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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching stringsbymail.com

This scan found 17 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
75
Security headers
65
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
77

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

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 stringsbymail.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2,090
Employees
0
Customers
2,090
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
35%

3 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for stringsbymail.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Strings By Mail operates as a specialized e-commerce retailer in the musical instruments sector, focusing on strings and accessories for guitars and orchestral instruments. The company leverages a broad product catalog and niche expertise to serve musicians worldwide, particularly in the United States. Its business model centers on direct online sales, supplemented by educational content and subscription services. The presence of multiple social media channels and partnerships with sheet music providers indicates a well-integrated marketing and partnership ecosystem. The company appears medium-sized with a consistent brand and strong trust signals, though the absence of domain registration data raises questions about operational transparency.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms. Security seals such as the Official PayPal Seal and PCI compliance logos enhance user trust. However, the use of outdated JavaScript libraries like jQuery 1.12.0 introduces potential vulnerabilities. The absence of explicit advanced security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options) suggests room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content. Privacy compliance is basic, lacking cookie consent mechanisms and detailed GDPR indicators. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available, indicating limited transparency in security governance.

Recommendations

  1. Update all JavaScript libraries, especially jQuery, to the latest secure versions to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Add a visible cookie consent banner and enhance privacy policy details to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  4. Investigate and resolve the missing or inconsistent WHOIS domain registration data to ensure domain legitimacy and build user trust.
  5. Publish or provide clear security policy and incident response information to demonstrate security governance and readiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Strings By Mail
Description
Strings By Mail is your online source for Classical, Flamenco, Acoustic and Electric Guitars. We also carry Violin, Cello, Viola, Bass, Sheet Music, Books, CDs and DVDs.
Key services
Sales of guitar strings (classical, acoustic, electric, bass), Sales of orchestral strings (violin, viola, cello, double bass), Sales of accessories (capos, cases, picks, humidifiers, tuners, etc.), Sheet music and instructional materials, Music recordings (CDs, DVDs, mp3 downloads), Subscription service for automatic string delivery
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.12.0, jQuery Migrate 1.3.0, jQuery BlockUI, jQuery LazySizes, jQuery Pushy, Owl Carousel, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, Google reCAPTCHA v3, Yotpo Reviews Widget
Frameworks
Zen Cart eCommerce
Platforms
Web (Desktop and Mobile Responsive)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google reCAPTCHA v3 implemented on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security seals and PCI compliance logos

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Google Trusted Stores
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google AdWords
Tracking pixels
Yotpo
Marketing tools
Yotpo Reviews, Google Trusted Stores
Transparency
good

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 product listings
  2. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected
  3. WHOIS data is missing or domain appears unregistered, which is suspicious
  4. Site uses older JavaScript libraries with potential vulnerabilities
  5. Good use of HTTPS and security seals
  6. No explicit cookie consent banner found
  7. Privacy and terms pages are present but basic
  8. Multiple social media channels actively linked
  9. Site uses Zen Cart e-commerce platform
  10. Good SEO and structured data usage
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Zen Cart e-commerce platform, utilizing a range of JavaScript libraries for UI components, lazy loading, and analytics integration. The tech stack includes jQuery 1.12.0, Owl Carousel, Pushy navigation, and Yotpo for customer reviews. Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager are used for tracking, alongside Google reCAPTCHA v3 for bot protection. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine understanding. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of stylesheets and scripts. However, the use of outdated libraries and lack of advanced security headers indicate technical debt and potential security risks. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with stringsbymail.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review stringsbymail.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.