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Security report for thechiefleader.com

The Chief · Media · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Chief is a specialized news media organization focusing on labor, municipal workers, and union-related news primarily in New York City and nationally. It operates a subscription and advertising-supported model, providing news articles, e-editions, classifieds, legal notices, and newsletters. The website demonstrates consistent branding and a clear target audience of labor professionals and municipal workers. Technically, the site uses a combination of legacy and modern technologies including Bootstrap, jQuery, Google Analytics, and Facebook SDK, hosted on GoDaddy infrastructure. While the site is generally well-structured and mobile-optimized, some technical debt is evident such as the use of an outdated jQuery version and lack of advanced security headers. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enforced and domain protections in place, but lacks DNSSEC and published security policies. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism detected. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but could improve in security and privacy compliance to enhance user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

6 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 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

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching thechiefleader.com

This scan found 25 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
15
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
64

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

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The Chief holds a niche position in the media industry serving labor and municipal sectors with specialized content. Its revenue streams appear to be a mix of subscriptions and advertising, supported by multiple ad zones managed via Revive Adserver. The presence of newsletters and e-editions indicates engagement with a loyal subscriber base. The company is small-sized, founded in 2010, and maintains a consistent brand presence with active social media channels. Partnerships with Creative Circle Media Solutions for hosting and ad management suggest a stable operational ecosystem. The business model is focused on delivering relevant labor news and opinion pieces, targeting union members, municipal employees, and professionals interested in labor issues. Growth indicators include active content updates and diversified content types such as classifieds and legal notices.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and employs domain registration protections such as clientDeleteProhibited status. However, it lacks DNSSEC, which could improve DNS security. No explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy or HSTS were detected, which are recommended best practices. The use of an outdated jQuery version (1.11.0) may expose the site to known vulnerabilities. No published security policy or incident response contact information is available, limiting transparency in security governance. Cookie consent mechanisms are absent, which may pose compliance risks under GDPR or similar regulations. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved by adopting modern security headers, updating libraries, and publishing security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  4. Update jQuery and other JavaScript libraries to current secure versions to reduce vulnerability exposure.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The Chief
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Chief
Description
The Chief is a news media organization focused on labor, municipal workers, and union-related news primarily in New York City and nationally.
Key services
News reporting, E-editions, Classifieds and display ads, Legal notices, Event calendar, Newsletter distribution
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.11.0, Bootstrap 3.1.1 and 3.4.1, Font Awesome 4.7.0, Google Analytics (gtag.js and analytics.js), Facebook SDK, Revive Adserver, Constant Contact forms
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of clientDeleteProhibited and other domain status flags to prevent unauthorized changes

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Revive Adserver
Tracking pixels
Facebook SDK
Marketing tools
Constant Contact
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a niche labor and municipal news media outlet with a clear focus and audience.
  2. Content is well structured with multiple sections including news, opinion, classifieds, legal notices, and newsletters.
  3. Use of multiple ad zones and Revive Adserver indicates monetization via advertising.
  4. Social media integration is present with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and RSS feed links.
  5. No explicit privacy cookie consent mechanism detected, which may be a compliance gap.
  6. No visible security policy or incident response information published.
  7. WHOIS data shows domain is well protected with multiple client status flags and no privacy protection.
  8. Website uses HTTPS and modern analytics and marketing tools.
  9. No signs of adult or questionable content; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a mix of legacy and modern web technologies including Bootstrap 3.x, jQuery 1.11.0, Font Awesome 4.7.0, and Google Analytics. The hosting is managed via GoDaddy with domain control nameservers. The site loads multiple ad zones using Revive Adserver and integrates marketing tools like Constant Contact for newsletter signups. Performance is moderate with some room for optimization. Mobile responsiveness is good, but accessibility features are basic. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data for news articles. The technical stack is stable but shows signs of aging components that should be updated to maintain security and performance.
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

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