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Security report for taz.de

TAZ Verlags- und Vertriebs GmbH · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

TAZ Verlags- und Vertriebs GmbH operates taz.de, a well-established German left-leaning independent news media outlet founded in 1992. The website offers a broad range of journalistic content including news, analyses, interviews, and reportages, targeting a general audience interested in critical and independent journalism. The business model is based on cooperative ownership and includes subscription services, events, and an online shop. The brand is consistent and trusted within its market segment. Technically, the website employs modern JavaScript frameworks such as Alpine.js and Cash DOM, integrates Google Publisher Tag for advertising, and uses Piwik/Matomo for analytics. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, hosted likely by ipberlin.com. Performance is moderate with good technical implementation. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and use of safe advertising frames. However, explicit security headers and policies are not clearly documented. Privacy compliance is limited due to the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. Contact information for security or privacy inquiries is not readily available. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance and security transparency to improve user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

3 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

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Keep watching taz.de

This scan found 20 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.

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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
95
Security headers
70
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
72

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 taz.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
729
Employees
7
Customers
642
Third parties
80
Weak passwords
16%

Latest record dated 2025-12-24 · 15 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 taz.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –taz.de2025-12-24
  • –taz.de2025-12-23
  • –taz.de2025-11-01
  • –seafile.taz.de2025-07-20
  • –seafile.taz.de2025-07-19

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

TAZ Verlags- und Vertriebs GmbH holds a strong position in the German media landscape as a left-wing independent news provider with cooperative ownership. Its business model leverages journalistic content, subscriptions, events, and e-commerce. The company maintains a broad digital presence with active social media channels and partnerships with related media outlets. Growth indicators include diversified content offerings and digital engagement. The company’s operations appear stable and credible with no suspicious domain or WHOIS patterns detected.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of Google Publisher Tag configured for safe frames and ad collapse. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts represent gaps. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, limiting transparency. Privacy compliance is basic, with no visible cookie consent mechanisms or privacy policies, which could pose regulatory risks under GDPR and NIS2 frameworks.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Implement and document security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and privacy inquiries, including a security.txt file.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Enhance transparency around data retention and user tracking practices to build user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
TAZ Verlags- und Vertriebs GmbH
Description
Kritischer, unabhängiger Journalismus der linken Nachrichtenseite taz: Analysen, Hintergründe, Kommentare, Interviews, Reportagen. Genossenschaft seit 1992.
Key services
News articles, Analyses, Comments, Interviews, Reportages, Subscription services, Events, Shop
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Alpine.js, Cash DOM, Google Publisher Tag (GPT), Piwik/Matomo analytics, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
Alpine.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Publisher Tag with safe frames
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik/Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick
Tracking pixels
Piwik/Matomo
Marketing tools
Google Publisher Tag, Shariff social sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional news media outlet with comprehensive content.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found in the provided HTML.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  4. Strong use of modern JavaScript frameworks and analytics tools.
  5. Advertising is managed via Google DoubleClick with multiple ad slots.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy detected.
  7. No explicit data protection officer contact information found.
  8. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and modular JavaScript stack including Alpine.js and Cash DOM, supporting dynamic and responsive user interfaces. Advertising is managed via Google DoubleClick with multiple ad slots and safe frame enforcement. Analytics are handled by Piwik/Matomo with event and page view tracking. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Hosting appears stable with multiple nameservers from ipberlin.com and lwlcom.net. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous script loading and font preloading to optimize user experience. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary solution.
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. 71/100Medium29 findingsView report
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