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Security report for techcrunch.com

TechCrunch · Technology · United States

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

TechCrunch is a well-established online media company specializing in technology news, startup coverage, and venture capital funding insights. Founded in 2005, it holds a strong market position as a leading technology news platform with a large, engaged audience including tech enthusiasts, investors, and startup founders. The website offers a variety of content formats including articles, podcasts, newsletters, and events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern SEO and analytics tools integrated, ensuring good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implied, though DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are not published. Privacy compliance is basic, lacking visible privacy and cookie policies or consent mechanisms. Overall, the site demonstrates high business credibility and professionalism but could improve transparency in privacy and security disclosures.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of techcrunch.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

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.

    • 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

  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.

    • 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

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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.

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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
75
Security headers
75
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
79

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 techcrunch.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
4,158
Employees
5
Customers
3,945
Third parties
208
Weak passwords
11%

Latest record dated 2026-04-21 · 19 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 techcrunch.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –apply.techcrunch.com2026-04-21
  • –login.techcrunch.com2025-09-20
  • –login.techcrunch.com2025-07-28
  • –login.techcrunch.com2025-07-20
  • –apply.techcrunch.com2025-04-22

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

TechCrunch operates as a major player in the technology media sector, leveraging a content-driven business model supported by advertising, events, and sponsored content. Its competitive advantage lies in its brand recognition, comprehensive coverage of the tech ecosystem, and diversified content offerings. The company targets a broad audience from industry professionals to general tech consumers. Partnerships with related sites like StrictlyVC and Crunchboard expand its ecosystem. Revenue streams likely include advertising, event sponsorships, and premium content. Growth indicators include continuous content updates, event hosting, and strong social media presence. The company maintains a professional digital footprint with consistent branding and a large content repository.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place. Use of reCAPTCHA and security-related scripts indicates attention to bot mitigation and form security. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts represent gaps in transparency and defense-in-depth. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The site could benefit from publishing a security.txt file and explicit vulnerability disclosure guidelines to enhance trust and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but not comprehensive.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish clear and accessible privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  3. Add a security policy page and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  4. Implement a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure program to encourage responsible reporting.
  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
TechCrunch
Description
TechCrunch | Reporting on the business of technology, startups, venture capital funding, and Silicon Valley
Key services
Technology news reporting, Startup coverage, Venture capital funding news, Event hosting (e.g., TechCrunch Disrupt), Podcasts, Newsletters, Partner content and brand studio
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress CMS, Yoast SEO plugin, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Facebook Pixel, reCAPTCHA, Parsely analytics, Cloudflare DNS and likely CDN
Frameworks
WordPress, Yoast SEO
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Use of security-related scripts
  • Domain status includes client and server prohibitions (delete, transfer, update)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Parsely, LinkedIn Insight, Facebook Pixel, HubSpot
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager, Servenobid, Sail Horizon, Scorecard Research, HelloBar, ATM TD
Tracking pixels
LinkedIn Insight, Facebook Pixel, Parsely
Marketing tools
HelloBar
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking mechanisms.
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and analytics.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found in the provided content.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  5. Social media presence is strong with official accounts linked.
  6. Advertising and tracking are extensive but standard for media sites.
  7. Security posture is good but could improve with DNSSEC and published policies.
Technical notes

Notes

TechCrunch's technical infrastructure is robust, leveraging WordPress CMS with advanced SEO plugins like Yoast and multiple analytics and marketing integrations including Google Analytics, Parsely, LinkedIn Insight, and Facebook Pixel. The site uses Cloudflare for DNS and likely CDN services, contributing to fast load times and global availability. The HTML content is well-structured with JSON-LD for rich snippets, and the site is optimized for mobile devices with responsive design. Accessibility features are present but could be further enhanced. The extensive use of third-party scripts introduces some complexity and potential privacy concerns but is typical for a media site. Overall, the technical implementation supports a high-quality user experience and strong digital presence.
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. 79/100 −4Low26 findingsView report
  2. 83/100 +2Low21 findingsView report
  3. 81/100Low23 findingsView report
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