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Security report for swr.de

Südwestrundfunk · Media · Germany

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

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Südwestrundfunk (SWR) is a large regional public broadcaster serving the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz. The website www.swr.de provides comprehensive news coverage, radio and television programming, and a media library with current videos and audios. The site targets a general audience interested in regional news, culture, sports, and educational content. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including JavaScript frameworks, lazy loading, and analytics tools such as Chartbeat and Piano Analytics. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with a professional and consistent design. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no visible sensitive data exposure, though explicit security headers and privacy policies are not clearly presented in the analyzed content. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professionally maintained, consistent with its role as a public media entity.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of swr.de. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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

5 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 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 swr.de

This scan found 22 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

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Full report

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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
65
Security headers
35
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
69

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 swr.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
270
Employees
15
Customers
184
Third parties
71
Weak passwords
28%

Latest record dated 2026-06-12 · 14 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 swr.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –adfs.swr.de2026-06-12
  • –adfs.swr.de2026-06-06
  • –adfs.swr.de2026-05-27
  • –adfs.swr.de2026-05-03
  • –adfs.swr.de2025-11-09

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

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)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

SWR holds a strong market position as a public broadcaster in southwestern Germany, offering a broad range of media services including radio, TV, and online news. Its business model is based on public funding and broadcasting licenses. The website integrates with partner platforms such as ARD Mediathek and ARD Audiothek, enhancing content distribution. The presence of charity and educational partners indicates a community-oriented approach. The site’s content and navigation structure support a wide demographic, emphasizing regional relevance and cultural engagement. Growth indicators include active multimedia content and event coverage. Strategic partnerships with educational and children’s networks strengthen its ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no apparent exposure of sensitive information. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No vulnerability disclosures or incident response contacts are published, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. The use of multiple analytics and tracking services indicates moderate user tracking, necessitating clear privacy and cookie consent mechanisms to comply fully with GDPR. Overall, the security measures are adequate but could be strengthened with formal policies and technical headers.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement and display a cookie consent mechanism to inform users and obtain consent for tracking.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection.
  4. Provide explicit security incident response contact information and a vulnerability disclosure policy.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Südwestrundfunk
Description
Nachrichten aus Baden-Württemberg und Rheinland-Pfalz, das SWR-Programm in Radio und Fernsehen sowie die Mediathek mit aktuellen Videos und Audios.
Key services
Radio broadcasting, Television broadcasting, Online news and media content, Mediathek video and audio streaming
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Piano Analytics, Chartbeat, LazyLoad, IntersectionObserver, Polyfill, SVG icons
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No visible exposed sensitive data
  • Use of secure cookies (implied by scripts)
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, Piano Analytics, Xiti
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Piano Analytics, Xiti
Marketing tools
Piano Analytics, Chartbeat
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a public broadcaster for the German regions Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz.
  2. Content is rich, including news articles, audio, and video media.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in the snippet.
  5. Uses multiple analytics and tracking services including Chartbeat and Piano Analytics.
  6. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; content fully accessible.
  7. Good mobile optimization and accessibility features observed.
  8. No security headers explicitly detected in the snippet; potential area for improvement.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, including polyfills for compatibility and lazy loading for performance optimization. It integrates analytics tools like Chartbeat and Piano Analytics for user behavior tracking. The site is mobile-responsive with good accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization in loading times and script management. No CMS or hosting provider details are explicitly detected. The site structure is well-organized with semantic markup and schema.org metadata for SEO. Technical risks are minimal but include the need for enhanced security headers and privacy controls.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 62/100Medium32 findingsView report
  2. 59/100Medium5 findings · partial scanView report
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