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Security report for theatlantic.com

The Atlantic · Media · United States

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

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Atlantic is a well-established media company providing news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more through various formats including articles, podcasts, videos, and a flagship magazine. The website demonstrates a strong market position with a large audience and a business model based on subscriptions and advertising. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies such as Next.js and integrates multiple advertising and analytics platforms, ensuring a fast, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly detailed. Privacy compliance is good, with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms in place. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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 19 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
25
Email security
88
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
74

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 focus on high-quality journalism and multimedia content. Its competitive advantage lies in its brand reputation, diverse content offerings, and digital presence. Revenue streams include subscriptions and advertising partnerships with major ad networks. The target audience is broad, encompassing readers interested in politics, culture, and technology. The company leverages partnerships with advertising and analytics providers to optimize monetization and audience insights. Growth indicators include active content updates and multimedia expansion. Strategic observations suggest maintaining strong privacy and security transparency could further enhance trust.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and secure form implementations. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a public security policy, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure program indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. Compliance with GDPR is evident through consent mechanisms and privacy policy details. The security culture appears professional but could benefit from explicit communication of security practices and incident handling.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide clear contact information for security and abuse reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and ad networks for potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance data protection officer visibility and compliance documentation.
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), JavaScript, CSS, Amazon Ads, Google DoubleClick, Rubicon Project, Permutive, DoubleVerify, Chartbeat
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with proper labels

Analytics and tracking

Services
Chartbeat, Permutive
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon Ads, Google DoubleClick, Rubicon Project, DoubleVerify
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Permutive
Marketing tools
Privacy Management Platform
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 branding and consistent professional design
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  4. Use of multiple ad networks and tracking services with transparency
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main page
  6. WHOIS data unavailable publicly, likely privacy protected
  7. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure found
  8. Good SEO and accessibility practices observed
  9. No adult or NSFW content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The Atlantic's website is built on a modern React-based framework (Next.js), ensuring server-side rendering and optimized performance. It integrates multiple third-party services for advertising, analytics, and privacy management, including Amazon Ads, Google DoubleClick, Rubicon Project, DoubleVerify, Chartbeat, and Permutive. The site is well-optimized for mobile devices and accessibility, with proper meta tags and structured data for SEO. No CMS was explicitly detected, but the architecture suggests a custom or headless CMS backend. Hosting details are not explicit but likely use CDN and cloud infrastructure for performance. Technical risks are minimal, though reliance on multiple third-party scripts requires ongoing security vigilance.
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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