Skip to main content

Security report for theonion.com

The Onion · Media · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Onion is a leading satirical news media company established in 1995, delivering humorous and satirical news content primarily to a general audience in the United States. The website serves as a digital platform for articles, videos, and newsletters, monetized mainly through advertising. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern technologies such as Gutenberg blocks, Yoast SEO, and integrates advertising and consent management tools. The infrastructure includes reputable hosting and CDN services, ensuring moderate to good performance and mobile optimization. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled and domain protections in place, though improvements like enabling DNSSEC and adding security headers are recommended. Privacy compliance is basic, with a cookie consent mechanism present but no explicit privacy policy or terms of service detected in the provided content. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

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

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 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
    • 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 theonion.com

This scan found 20 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
42
Security headers
15
Email security
90
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
72

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 Onion holds a strong market position as a premier satirical news outlet with a large audience base. Its business model relies on advertising revenue supported by integrated ad networks and tracking technologies. The company maintains active social media channels to engage its audience. The absence of direct contact information and formal privacy/legal documents on the main site suggests a focus on content delivery rather than direct customer service. The technology stack and SEO practices indicate a mature digital presence, though there is room for enhanced transparency and compliance documentation. No suspicious or fraudulent patterns were detected, supporting a credible business operation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections that prevent unauthorized transfers or deletions. However, the lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content Security Policy or HSTS represent areas for enhancement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were identified in the analyzed content. The presence of a cookie consent banner aligns with privacy best practices, though the absence of a detailed privacy policy and incident response information limits full compliance assessment. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file was found, which could improve transparency and trust. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could benefit from additional hardening and documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve DNS security.
  2. Implement and publish security headers including Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service accessible from the homepage.
  4. Add a security.txt file or vulnerability disclosure policy to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and provide clearer contact information to improve user trust and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Onion
Description
The Onion brings you all of the latest news, stories, photos, videos and more from America's finest news source.
Key services
Satirical news articles, Videos, Photos, Newsletter subscription
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO Premium, Gravity Forms, Google Fonts, FontAwesome, Amazon A9 Ads, Prebid.js, TagConcierge Consent Banner
Frameworks
Gutenberg (WordPress block editor)
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes client and server prohibitions (delete, transfer, update)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (implied via GTM), WordPress.com Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Amazon A9, HTLBid
Tracking pixels
Parsely
Marketing tools
TagConcierge Consent Banner
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established satirical news media outlet
  2. Uses modern WordPress CMS with Gutenberg blocks and Yoast SEO
  3. Implements cookie consent banner with TagConcierge
  4. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found in the provided content
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content
  6. Social media presence confirmed via Facebook and Twitter links
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  8. DNSSEC not enabled, which is a minor security gap
Technical notes

Notes

The Onion's website is powered by WordPress CMS using the Gutenberg block editor and enhanced with Yoast SEO Premium for search optimization. It leverages multiple external resources including Google Fonts, FontAwesome icons, Amazon advertising scripts, and a consent management platform from TagConcierge. The site uses a reputable registrar (MarkMonitor Inc.) and CDN services (Cloudfront) for content delivery. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization. The site lacks DNSSEC and security headers, which are technical risks. The absence of explicit privacy and security policies indicates technical debt in compliance documentation. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and functional but could be improved with additional security and compliance measures.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with theonion.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review theonion.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.