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Security report for theatlantic.com

The Atlantic · Media · N/a

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

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Atlantic is a prominent media organization providing news, politics, culture, technology, and health content through articles, podcasts, videos, and a flagship magazine. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with a modern tech stack including React and Next.js, optimized for performance and mobile responsiveness. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent management mechanisms. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and bot protection, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly visible. The absence of WHOIS data is likely due to registry restrictions rather than suspicious activity, and the brand's established reputation supports legitimacy. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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 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

  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 theatlantic.com

This scan found 21 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
65
Security headers
25
Email security
88
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
71

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 theatlantic.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
3,052
Employees
1
Customers
3,006
Third parties
45
Weak passwords
10%

Latest record dated 2026-06-13 · 12 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 theatlantic.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –accounts.theatlantic.com2026-06-13

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

The Atlantic operates in the media sector with a business model centered on content publishing and subscription services supplemented by advertising revenue. It targets a broad audience interested in current affairs and culture. The company maintains a strong brand presence with consistent branding and high-quality content. The website integrates advertising and analytics tools while maintaining good privacy compliance. No direct contact information or security incident channels are publicly available, which is common for large media outlets. The site links to social media platforms to engage audiences and extend reach.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and multiple security headers, indicating a robust security baseline. It uses Google reCAPTCHA to mitigate automated abuse and a consent management platform to comply with privacy regulations. However, there is no visible vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file, and no explicit incident response or security contact information is provided. These gaps suggest room for improvement in transparency and incident readiness. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page with contact details.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Enhance transparency around data retention and privacy practices.
  4. Provide clear company contact information for business and security inquiries.
  5. Regularly review and update security headers and third-party libraries to maintain security posture.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Atlantic
Description
The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
Key services
news articles, podcasts, videos, magazine subscription
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, Google reCAPTCHA, Chartbeat, Google Tag Manager, CMP InMobi (Consent Management Platform)
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for bot protection
  • Consent management platform for privacy compliance

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
InMobi, Google Ad Manager
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat
Marketing tools
Google reCAPTCHA, Consent Management Platform by InMobi
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 multimedia
  2. Strong use of modern web technologies and frameworks
  3. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent mechanisms
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main page
  5. No explicit security or incident response contact information found
  6. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt detected
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, likely due to registry policy or privacy protection
  8. High quality and professional media content with consistent branding
  9. No adult or NSFW content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The Atlantic's website is built on a modern JavaScript framework (Next.js) with React, enabling server-side rendering and fast performance. It uses third-party services such as Chartbeat for analytics and InMobi for consent management and advertising. The site is optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, with comprehensive SEO metadata including Open Graph and JSON-LD structured data. The use of multiple preload and async scripts indicates performance optimization. No CMS was explicitly detected, but the architecture suggests a custom or headless CMS integration. Hosting provider details are not explicitly available from the content.
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. 74/100Medium25 findingsView report
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