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Security report for thisweekinstartups.com

This Week in Startups · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

This Week in Startups is a well-established podcast and media platform focused on startups, technology, and venture capital. Hosted by Jason Calacanis, it features interviews with founders, investors, and industry experts, providing insights into the startup ecosystem. The platform offers a rich library of episodes, community engagement through Slack, and advertising opportunities, positioning itself as a key player in the tech media space. Technically, the website is built using modern frameworks such as Nuxt.js and Vue.js, styled with Tailwind CSS, and integrates multiple third-party services for analytics and advertising. However, the site suffers from performance issues with slow load times and a large page size. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, ensuring a positive user experience across devices. From a security perspective, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical vulnerability. Additionally, no security headers are detected, and extensive third-party tracking is present without clear privacy compliance. There is no visible privacy or cookie policy, which raises compliance concerns. These issues reduce the overall security posture and privacy compliance of the site. Overall, while the business and content quality are strong, the technical and security aspects require significant improvements to enhance trust and compliance. Strategic recommendations include fixing SSL issues, implementing security headers, establishing clear privacy policies, and optimizing performance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of thisweekinstartups.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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

8 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 21 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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Recommended

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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
50
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
58

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

This Week in Startups operates as a content-driven business model centered around podcasting and media production. Its market positioning is strong, with a large and consistent audience of startup founders, investors, and tech enthusiasts. The platform leverages partnerships with survey and document platforms like Typeform and Coda, and maintains active social media channels to engage its community. Revenue streams likely include advertising, sponsorships, and community memberships. The target customer segments are primarily tech-savvy professionals interested in startup trends and venture capital insights. The extensive episode archive and high-profile guests contribute to its competitive advantage and brand authority in the startup media landscape.

Security posture

The current security maturity level of the website is low due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate, which is fundamental for secure communications. The lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options further exposes the site to potential attacks. The presence of multiple third-party scripts increases the attack surface and may introduce vulnerabilities if not properly managed. There is no evidence of a formal security policy or incident response plan, and no dedicated security contact channels are found. Compliance gaps exist, particularly regarding GDPR and cookie consent mechanisms, as no privacy or cookie policies are present. The site does not demonstrate a strong security culture or proactive data protection practices, which could impact user trust and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to ensure secure HTTPS connections.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Develop and publish clear privacy and cookie policies with explicit consent mechanisms to comply with GDPR and other regulations.
  4. Establish a formal security policy and incident response plan, including dedicated security contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ emails).
  5. Regularly audit and monitor third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate risks from vulnerable libraries.
Technical notes

Notes

The website utilizes a modern technology stack with Nuxt.js and Vue.js frameworks, enhanced by Tailwind CSS for styling. It integrates various third-party services for analytics, advertising, and user engagement, including Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Outbrain, Taboola, and SumoMe. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing performance and security benefits. Despite this, the site experiences slow load times (over 14 seconds) and a large page size (~979 KB), indicating potential optimization opportunities. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident in meta tags and structured data. However, the invalid SSL certificate and lack of security headers represent technical risks that should be addressed promptly.
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. 63/100Medium27 findingsView report
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