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Security report for thepost.co.nz

Stuff Ltd · Media · New Zealand

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Post is a New Zealand-based digital news media website operated by Stuff Ltd, providing trusted news coverage across politics, business, finance, sport, lifestyle, and more. The site targets New Zealand residents seeking current affairs and opinion content. Technically, the website employs modern frameworks such as Ionic and ReactJS, integrates multiple advertising and analytics services, and demonstrates good mobile optimization and user experience. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS implied but lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies. WHOIS data for the domain www.thepost.co.nz is missing, which reduces transparency but the professional content and association with Stuff Ltd support legitimacy. Overall, the site is a reputable media outlet with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security best practices.

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

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 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 thepost.co.nz

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
92
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
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 Post operates under Stuff Ltd, a large media company in New Zealand, positioning itself as a trusted news source with a subscription and advertising revenue model. The website's content quality and branding are consistent and professional, appealing to a broad New Zealand audience interested in news and opinion. The extensive use of third-party ad networks and tracking services indicates a monetization strategy reliant on advertising and user data. The lack of explicit contact information and privacy documentation suggests potential gaps in user trust and regulatory compliance. The parent domain www.stuff.co.nz is closely related and likely the main brand site.

Security posture

The website uses HTTPS and integrates security-related services such as Google Tag Manager and New Relic. However, no explicit security headers were detected in the HTML content, and there is no visible security policy or incident response information. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain is a transparency concern. Advertising and tracking scripts are numerous, indicating extensive user tracking. No critical vulnerabilities or malware indicators were found in the content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be enhanced by implementing security headers, publishing security policies, and improving WHOIS transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms.
  2. Add explicit security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Enhance security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Improve WHOIS transparency by ensuring domain registration details are publicly available or justified.
  5. Review and minimize third-party tracking scripts to improve user privacy and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stuff Ltd
Description
The Post is a New Zealand news website providing trusted news coverage on politics, business, finance, economics, sport, lifestyle, and more. It is operated by Stuff Ltd.
Key services
News articles, Opinion pieces, Quizzes, Obituaries, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Ionic Framework, ReactJS, Google Tag Manager, Piano (subscription/paywall), Nielsen Analytics, FontAwesome, New Relic
Frameworks
Ionic, ReactJS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by Google Tag Manager and manifest usage)
  • Google site verification present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Nielsen Analytics
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Google AdSense, Outbrain, Index Exchange, AppNexus (prebid.adnxs.com), GumGum, Teads, Xandr, Rubicon Project, Criteo, Casale Media, OpenX, Kargo, PubMatic
Tracking pixels
Nielsen, Outbrain, Piano (subscription tracking)
Marketing tools
Piano subscription/paywall SDK
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional New Zealand news media site operated by Stuff Ltd.
  2. Content includes news, opinion, quizzes, and obituaries with author bylines and images.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  5. Extensive use of advertising and tracking networks is present.
  6. Modern web technologies and frameworks are used, including Ionic and ReactJS.
  7. No WAF or security challenge detected; site content is fully accessible.
  8. WHOIS data for the domain is missing, which is unusual and reduces transparency.
  9. No adult or explicit content detected; content is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using modern web technologies including Ionic Framework and ReactJS, indicating a contemporary and modular front-end architecture. It leverages multiple third-party services for analytics, advertising, and subscription management (Piano). Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured content. However, the site lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy documentation, which are technical debt areas. Hosting provider details are not evident from the HTML content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional news media platform but requires enhancements in security and privacy compliance.
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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