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Security report for thelocal.se

The Local Europe AB · Media · Sweden

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Local Sweden is a well-established online news media company providing English-language news and practical guides focused on Sweden. Founded in 2004, it targets expatriates and English-speaking residents, offering a broad range of content including politics, travel, jobs, and property. The business model combines advertising revenue with a membership program, supported by a professional and user-friendly website. The company maintains a consistent brand presence and strong trust indicators such as clear contact information and privacy compliance. Technically, the website leverages modern web technologies including Vue.js, Bootstrap, and integrates multiple third-party services for analytics, advertising, and membership management. The site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly, delivering a good user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced, cookie consent mechanisms, and CSRF protections, though some HTTP security headers could be improved. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of WHOIS data for the .se domain is noted but does not detract significantly from the overall legitimacy given the strong business presence and content quality. Overall, The Local Sweden presents a trustworthy and professional digital presence with room for minor security enhancements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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

4 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. 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 thelocal.se

This scan found 22 issues across 5 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
57
Security headers
15
Email security
80
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
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 Local Sweden occupies a niche market as an English-language news provider in Sweden, serving expatriates and international residents. Its competitive advantage lies in localized content tailored to this audience, combined with a membership model that supports revenue diversification beyond advertising. The company benefits from partnerships with payment processors and customer support platforms, enhancing operational efficiency. Growth indicators include active content updates, podcasts, and a broad social media footprint. The business ecosystem includes related domains for job postings and support, indicating a comprehensive service offering. Strategic observations suggest continued investment in digital maturity and user engagement will sustain market position.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security best practices implemented, including cookie consent and CSRF token usage. However, explicit HTTP security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and X-Frame-Options are not clearly present in the HTML and should be verified at the server level. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the analyzed content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response page is a gap in transparency and preparedness. The site does not currently publish a security.txt file, which could facilitate vulnerability disclosures. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by formalizing security policies and improving header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify HTTP security headers including X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy at the server level.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response information on the website to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience for all visitors.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The Local Europe AB
VAT number
SE556667-4023
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Local Europe AB
Description
Latest news, travel, politics, money, jobs and more. Get guides on property, second homes, visas, language, taxes from The Local's journalists in Sweden.
Key services
News articles, Practical guides, Podcasts, Membership access, Job listings, Property rentals
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Piano (paywall and membership), Cxense (content recommendation), Consentmanager.net (cookie consent), DoubleClick for Publishers (Google Ad Manager), MailerLite (newsletter), jQuery, Bootstrap, Vue.js
Frameworks
Bootstrap, Vue.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • CSRF token meta tag present
  • No exposed credentials in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Cxense
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager (DoubleClick)
Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via GTM), Cxense
Marketing tools
MailerLite, Piano
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional news media site targeting English speakers in Sweden.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and includes multiple categories and membership options.
  3. Strong use of third-party services for analytics, advertising, and membership management.
  4. Cookie consent and privacy policy are prominently implemented indicating GDPR compliance.
  5. No signs of adult or explicit content; content is safe for general audiences.
  6. No WHOIS data available for the .se domain, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious.
  7. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The Local Sweden's website is built on a modern technology stack including Vue.js and Bootstrap, supported by WordPress CMS inferred from asset URLs. It integrates multiple third-party services such as Piano for membership/paywall, Cxense for content recommendations, Google Tag Manager and Analytics for tracking, and MailerLite for newsletters. The site uses asynchronous loading for scripts and lazy loading for images to optimize performance. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO practices are well implemented with comprehensive meta tags and structured data. The site performance is moderate, with potential for improvement in load times by optimizing third-party scripts. Technical risks include dependency on multiple external services which require ongoing monitoring to ensure availability and security.
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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