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Security report for thecut.com

The Cut · Media · United States

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

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Cut is a well-established digital media brand focused on women's interests including fashion, beauty, politics, and culture. It operates as a vertical of New York Magazine under Vox Media, leveraging a strong editorial team and award-winning content. The website demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with extensive use of modern advertising and analytics technologies, including Google Tag Manager, Permutive, and various ad networks. Security posture is generally strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though some security headers and explicit security contact information are absent. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with a comprehensive ethics and privacy policy linked, but lacks visible cookie consent mechanisms. WHOIS data for the domain is missing or inaccessible, which is unusual but likely due to querying the 'www' subdomain or privacy protection. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, serving a large audience with high-quality media content.

Scanned

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

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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching thecut.com

This scan found 22 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
62
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
70

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 Cut holds a strong market position as a leading women's lifestyle and culture publication, backed by Vox Media's resources. Its business model combines advertising revenue with subscription and membership offerings. The target audience is primarily women interested in contemporary issues such as feminism, politics, and style. The brand benefits from multiple awards and a robust social media presence, enhancing its credibility and reach. Partnerships with Vox Media and New York Magazine provide strategic advantages in content distribution and monetization. The site’s extensive use of third-party ad and tracking services indicates a sophisticated monetization strategy but also raises privacy considerations.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a presumably strong SSL configuration, ensuring secure data transmission. It uses Google Tag Manager and other third-party scripts for analytics and advertising, which are common but require careful management to avoid privacy risks. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and lack of a published vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file suggest room for improvement in security transparency and defense-in-depth. Privacy compliance is partially met with a detailed privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are not evident, which could be a compliance gap under GDPR. Incident response contact information is not publicly visible, limiting direct security communication channels.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure policy to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  3. Add a visible and comprehensive cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Provide explicit security and privacy contact information on the website to improve transparency and incident response readiness.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and conduct regular audits to improve usability for all users.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Cut
Description
The Cut is a New York Magazine site covering women’s lives and interests, from politics, feminism, work, money, relationships, mental health, style, pop culture, parenting, and more.
Key services
News and feature articles, Fashion and beauty coverage, Politics and feminism reporting, Relationship and mental health content, Podcasts
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Permutive, ProfitWell, Rubicon Project, Amazon A9, Google Publisher Tags, DoubleVerify, Concert Ads
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for script management
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Parsely, Scorecard Research, Permutive
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Rubicon Project, Amazon A9, Google AdSense/Google Publisher Tags, Concert Ads, DoubleVerify
Tracking pixels
Parsely, Scorecard Research, ProfitWell, Permutive
Marketing tools
Permutive
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major media publication with strong brand presence
  2. Content is rich, professionally produced, and well structured
  3. No signs of WAF or content blocking
  4. Extensive use of third-party ad and tracking services
  5. WHOIS data unavailable or domain not found in queried WHOIS database
  6. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in HTML content
  7. Privacy and ethics policies linked and comprehensive
  8. No visible cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy page found
  9. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a custom CMS platform likely developed by Vox Media, utilizing modern JavaScript libraries and extensive third-party integrations for advertising and analytics. The tech stack includes Google Tag Manager, Permutive for audience segmentation, ProfitWell for subscription analytics, and multiple ad networks such as Rubicon Project and Amazon A9. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of scripts to optimize page speed. Mobile optimization is good, with responsive design elements evident. SEO is well addressed through meta tags, Open Graph, and structured JSON-LD data. However, the site could benefit from improved accessibility compliance and more robust security header implementation to reduce technical risks.
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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