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Security report for thisweekinstartups.com

This Week in Startups · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

This Week in Startups is a well-established media brand founded in 2009 by Jason Calacanis, focusing on startups, technology, and business through podcast episodes featuring interviews with founders, investors, and innovators. The website serves as a hub for accessing the latest episodes, community engagement, and advertising opportunities. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging Nuxt.js, TailwindCSS, and Cloudflare DNS, with integrations for multiple marketing and tracking services. The site is mobile optimized and provides a professional user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and domain locking, though DNSSEC is not enabled and privacy compliance documentation is missing. Overall, the site is credible and trustworthy but would benefit from improved privacy and cookie policy transparency.

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

9 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. 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';…

  3. 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

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching thisweekinstartups.com

This scan found 23 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
75
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
63

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 business operates in the media and technology sectors, targeting startup founders, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts. Its business model revolves around content creation, community building, and monetization through advertising and partnerships. The brand has a strong market position with a long history and recognizable host. The ecosystem includes partnerships with podcast platforms and marketing tools. Growth indicators include active episode publishing and community engagement. Strategic observations suggest focusing on compliance and security transparency to enhance trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced, domain status protections, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts indicate areas for improvement. The use of multiple third-party tracking scripts introduces moderate privacy risks. Compliance gaps exist due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident, which could impact trust and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  2. Implement DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  3. Add a security.txt file or dedicated vulnerability disclosure page to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security and abuse emails.
  5. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts to minimize privacy risks and improve user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
This Week in Startups
Description
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.
Key services
Podcast episodes featuring interviews with founders, investors, and innovators, Community engagement via Slack, Advertising opportunities, Curated trading and market insights (Jay Trading, TWiST Ticker)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TailwindCSS, Cloudflare DNS, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Twitter Ads, Quora Pixel, Marin Software Tag, Taboola, Outbrain, Sumo, PodcastAI integration
Frameworks
Nuxt.js (Vue.js SSR framework), TailwindCSS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • Domain locked with multiple EPP status flags
  • No DNSSEC (not enabled)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Taboola, Outbrain
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Twitter Ads Pixel, Quora Pixel, Marin Software Tag
Marketing tools
Sumo, Typeform
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional podcast media site focused on startups and technology.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. Multiple third-party marketing and tracking scripts are used.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found on the main page.
  5. Site uses modern frontend technologies and is mobile optimized.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. Domain is well established and locked with EPP status flags.
  8. No DNSSEC enabled, which is a minor security improvement opportunity.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with Nuxt.js for server-side rendering and TailwindCSS for styling, ensuring fast performance and excellent mobile responsiveness. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The site integrates multiple marketing and tracking services, which may impact privacy. No CMS is explicitly detected, indicating a custom or framework-based solution. The site is well-structured with proper meta tags and SEO optimizations. Opportunities exist to enhance security with DNSSEC and improve compliance documentation.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 58/100Medium28 findingsView report
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