Skip to main content

Security report for thewestwingweekly.com

The West Wing Weekly · Media · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The West Wing Weekly website serves as the official platform for a podcast dedicated to discussing the TV show The West Wing. It offers rich multimedia content including audio episodes, live event recordings, and political film discussions. The site is supported by Patreon subscriptions and merchandise sales, targeting fans of the show and politically engaged listeners. The business operates in the media and non-profit sectors with a small organizational size and a history dating back to 2016. Technically, the site is built on Squarespace CMS, leveraging modern web technologies such as Typekit fonts, embedded audio players, and third-party donation and marketing tools. The site is mobile optimized with good SEO practices but could improve accessibility features. Performance is moderate, typical for content-rich media sites. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS but lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC, which are recommended to enhance protection. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. Privacy compliance is weak due to the absence of explicit privacy and cookie policies, which is a notable gap given the site's data collection via Patreon and donation widgets. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy with a strong brand presence and social media integration. Strategic improvements in privacy compliance and security hardening would enhance its risk posture and user trust.

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

7 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 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

    • 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 thewestwingweekly.com

This scan found 27 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.

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
62
Security headers
35
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
60

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 thewestwingweekly.com, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for thewestwingweekly.com right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The West Wing Weekly occupies a niche podcast market with a loyal fanbase, leveraging celebrity hosts and political themes to differentiate itself. Its revenue streams include Patreon subscriptions and merchandise sales, supported by a content-rich website. The partnership ecosystem includes Patreon, political organizations like When We All Vote, and media publishers such as Penguin Random House. The business model focuses on content monetization and community engagement. Growth indicators include live events and special episodes featuring notable guests. The company maintains a consistent brand and professional content, positioning it well within the media podcast segment.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled but lacks several recommended security headers and DNSSEC. No signs of malware or phishing were detected. The absence of privacy and cookie policies indicates compliance gaps, especially regarding GDPR. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly documented. The site does not expose sensitive data or use vulnerable libraries. Overall, the security posture is adequate but could benefit from enhancements in header implementation, DNS security, and privacy compliance to reduce risk and improve user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user trust.
  2. Enable DNSSEC for the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  4. Introduce a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerable components are included.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The West Wing Weekly
Description
The West Wing Weekly is a podcast offering episode-by-episode discussions of the television show The West Wing, co-hosted by star Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway. It includes special episodes, live events, and political film discussions.
Key services
Podcast episodes, Live event recordings, Merchandise sales, Patreon subscription content
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Squarespace CMS, Typekit fonts, Podtrac audio hosting, YouTube embeds, CommitChange donation widget, SumoMe marketing tools
Platforms
Squarespace
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
SumoMe
Marketing tools
SumoMe
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-maintained podcast site with rich multimedia content.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on the site.
  3. No terms of service page detected.
  4. Contact email is provided but no phone number or physical address found.
  5. Site uses Squarespace CMS and integrates multiple third-party services for audio hosting and donations.
  6. Security headers and DNSSEC are lacking, which could be improved.
  7. No signs of adult or unsafe content.
  8. Social media presence is strong with official accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is hosted on Squarespace, a reliable and widely used CMS platform, ensuring stable infrastructure and ease of content management. The tech stack includes modern web fonts, embedded audio players, and integration with external services for donations and marketing. Performance is moderate, with some third-party scripts that may impact load times. The site is mobile responsive and SEO optimized with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Accessibility features are basic and could be improved. Overall, the technical implementation supports the business goals effectively but has room for optimization and security hardening.
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 thewestwingweekly.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 thewestwingweekly.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.