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Security report for thepress.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 Press website is a regional news portal serving Christchurch and Canterbury, New Zealand, operated by Stuff Ltd. It provides a wide range of news content including local news, politics, culture, business, sport, and lifestyle. The site targets the general public in the region and operates on an advertising-supported model with subscription options. The website demonstrates professional content quality and consistent branding, positioning it as a trusted media outlet in New Zealand. Technically, the site leverages modern web technologies including the Ionic Framework and ReactJS, with integrations for analytics, advertising, and content delivery such as New Relic, Google Tag Manager, Piano subscription services, and Brightcove video player. The site is mobile-optimized and shows good SEO practices, although accessibility features are basic. Performance is moderate with room for improvement. From a security perspective, HTTPS is enforced and Google site verification is present, but there is a lack of explicit security headers and no visible security or incident response policies. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain is a concern for domain legitimacy verification, though the website content and branding strongly indicate a legitimate business. Privacy and cookie policies are not clearly found, indicating potential compliance gaps. Overall, the website is a credible and professional news platform with a solid business model and technical foundation. However, improvements in privacy compliance, security headers, and domain registration transparency are recommended to enhance trust and security posture.

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 thepress.co.nz

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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

Stuff Ltd operates The Press as a key regional news outlet in New Zealand, focusing on Christchurch and Canterbury. The business model relies on digital advertising and subscriptions, targeting local residents and news consumers. The company benefits from a strong brand presence and professional journalism. The extensive use of third-party ad networks and tracking services indicates a monetization strategy heavily dependent on advertising revenue. The lack of explicit contact information and privacy policies suggests areas for operational improvement. The company appears to be well-established with a large audience, but domain registration opacity could be a risk factor in brand trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of reputable analytics and advertising services. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options reduces protection against common web attacks. No vulnerability disclosure or security policy information is provided, limiting transparency and incident response readiness. The missing WHOIS data for the domain complicates trust verification. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is functional and secure at a basic level but requires enhancements to meet higher security and compliance standards.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance and consent mechanisms.
  2. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Provide a publicly accessible security policy and vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  4. Improve accessibility features to meet WCAG standards for broader user inclusivity.
  5. Investigate and resolve WHOIS data availability issues to enhance domain legitimacy and trust.

Contact details published on the site

Legal name
Stuff Ltd
Registration number
Chamber of Commerce
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stuff Ltd
Description
The Press is a news website providing Christchurch and Canterbury news, operated by Stuff Ltd. It offers news articles covering local events, politics, culture, business, sport, and lifestyle.
Key services
News reporting, Digital news content, Subscription services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Ionic Framework, ReactJS, New Relic, Google Tag Manager, Piano (Tinypass), Brightcove Player, FontAwesome, Prebid.js, Google Publisher Tags, IMR Worldwide SDK
Frameworks
Ionic, React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by external scripts loaded over HTTPS)
  • Google site verification present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, IMR Worldwide
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
poor

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
Outbrain, IMR Worldwide
Marketing tools
Piano (Tinypass)
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 news portal for Christchurch and Canterbury region operated by Stuff Ltd.
  2. Content is rich with multiple news articles, author bylines, and multimedia content.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in the provided HTML snapshot.
  4. Extensive use of third-party ad networks and tracking services.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain registration trust verification.
  8. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The Press website is built using modern web technologies such as Ionic Framework and ReactJS, enabling a responsive and dynamic user experience. It integrates multiple third-party services for analytics, advertising, and content delivery, including New Relic, Google Tag Manager, Piano subscription management, and Brightcove video player. The site uses a modular ad setup with numerous ad networks and tracking pixels, indicating a complex monetization infrastructure. Performance is moderate, with good mobile optimization but basic accessibility. The site lacks some security best practices such as security headers and explicit privacy controls, which should be addressed to reduce technical risks and improve 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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