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Security report for thefederal.com

The Federal · Media · India

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Federal is a digital news platform established in 2019, focusing on in-depth reporting and analysis of news from India, particularly the southern states. It offers a range of content including national and world news, sports, politics, and entertainment, targeting a general audience interested in balanced news coverage. The platform maintains a consistent brand presence and leverages social media channels to extend its reach. Technically, the website employs modern advertising and analytics technologies such as Google Adsense, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and Microsoft Clarity, hosted on AWS infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and demonstrates good SEO practices, although accessibility features are basic. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain status protections in place, but lacks comprehensive security headers and published security policies. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism or GDPR compliance indicators. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professionally maintained but could improve in privacy and security transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

8 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

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

Keep watching thefederal.com

This scan found 23 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
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  • Security headers
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  • 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
72
Security headers
25
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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 thefederal.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
11
Employees
0
Customers
11
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
18%

4 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 thefederal.com.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The Federal operates as a small-sized media entity specializing in digital news dissemination with a regional focus on South India. Its business model revolves around advertising revenue, supported by Google Adsense and tracking pixels for user analytics and retargeting. The platform's competitive advantage lies in its regional news focus and balanced reporting approach. The company maintains active social media engagement across major platforms, enhancing audience interaction and brand visibility. The domain's long age and consistent registration details support business credibility. However, the absence of detailed compliance and security disclosures suggests room for maturity in governance and risk management. No parent or subsidiary relationships were identified, indicating an independent operation.

Security posture

The Federal's security posture is moderate. The website uses HTTPS, ensuring encrypted communications, and the domain is protected with clientDeleteProhibited and related statuses, preventing unauthorized transfers or deletions. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which could expose DNS spoofing risks. Security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options are not explicitly detected, which are important for mitigating common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the analyzed content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness perception. Privacy compliance is partial, with no cookie consent mechanism detected, which may pose regulatory risks in GDPR-affected regions. Overall, the site is secure but would benefit from enhanced security controls and compliance disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement and publish comprehensive security headers including CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner and mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Publish a detailed security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
  5. Conduct regular security audits to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities and improve overall security posture.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The Federal
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Federal
Description
The Federal is a digital news platform focusing on in-depth reporting and analysis of news and issues from India, with a regional focus on the southern states.
Key services
news reporting, analysis, commentary, multimedia content
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Adsense, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Microsoft Clarity, Razorpay payment gateway, AWS DNS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited etc.

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Microsoft Clarity, ComScore
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Microsoft Clarity, ComScore
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Notes

The website is built with a modern tech stack incorporating Google Adsense for monetization, Google Tag Manager for analytics management, Facebook Pixel and Microsoft Clarity for user behavior tracking, and Razorpay for payment processing. Hosting is managed via AWS DNS services, indicating reliable infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and uses structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO enhancement. Performance is moderate, with some scripts loaded asynchronously to improve load times. Accessibility features are basic, and SEO optimization is good with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS was explicitly detected from the provided content. The site could improve by adopting advanced accessibility standards and optimizing performance further.
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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