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Security report for veteran.com

Three Creeks Media, LLC · Media · United States

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Veteran.com is a specialized media website operated by Three Creeks Media, LLC, providing comprehensive information and tools related to military pay, veteran benefits, and related financial resources. The site targets US military veterans, active duty members, reservists, and their families, offering calculators, discount listings, and educational content to assist users in navigating complex military and VA benefits. The business model relies heavily on content marketing, affiliate partnerships, and advertising revenue, positioning itself as a trusted resource within the veteran community. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages common web technologies such as jQuery, Chart.js, and Font Awesome, with Cloudflare providing hosting and CDN services. SEO is enhanced through Yoast SEO, and Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and marketing tracking. However, performance data is missing, and the site exhibits slow loading characteristics. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility features are basic. From a security perspective, the site has several critical issues: it lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support modern TLS protocols, severely impacting secure communications. While some security headers are implemented, the ineffective HSTS configuration and malformed CAA DNS records further weaken the security posture. No cookie consent mechanism is present despite the use of tracking and advertising scripts, raising privacy compliance concerns. Overall, Veteran.com is a content-rich and professionally presented site with moderate trustworthiness and business credibility. However, its security and privacy compliance shortcomings present risks that should be addressed to protect user data and enhance user trust. Strategic improvements in SSL/TLS deployment, cookie consent implementation, and DNS record hygiene are recommended to elevate the site's security and compliance standing.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 veteran.com

This scan found 14 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

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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
75
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
75

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

Veteran.com operates as a niche media platform focused on the military and veteran community in the United States. Its competitive advantage lies in providing clear, accessible information on military pay, benefits, and discounts, supported by interactive calculators and tools. Revenue streams include affiliate marketing, advertising (notably Google AdSense and Quinstreet), and lead generation. The target customer segments are veterans, active military personnel, reservists, and military families seeking benefit information and financial guidance. The site demonstrates growth potential through its extensive content library and partnerships with discount providers. The parent company, Three Creeks Media, LLC, manages the site and related properties, indicating a focused media business model with a specialized audience. The partnership ecosystem includes advertising networks and discount aggregators, supporting monetization and user engagement.

Security posture

Veteran.com exhibits a low to moderate security maturity level. Key strengths include the presence of several security headers such as X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, and Content Security Policy restricting frame ancestors. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of support for any TLS protocols represent critical vulnerabilities that expose users to potential interception and data compromise. The HSTS header is present but disabled by a max-age of zero, negating its protective effect. DNS CAA records are malformed, which could allow unauthorized certificate issuance. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are publicly available, and no dedicated security contact channels are provided. The site also lacks cookie consent mechanisms, which is a compliance gap under GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the security posture requires urgent improvements in SSL/TLS deployment, DNS record configuration, and privacy compliance to mitigate risks and protect user data.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS and support modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and 1.3).
  2. Configure HSTS with a proper max-age and include subdomains to enforce HTTPS usage.
  3. Correct or remove malformed CAA DNS records to prevent unauthorized certificate issuance.
  4. Implement a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  5. Publish a security policy and vulnerability disclosure program, including dedicated contact channels for incident reporting.
  6. Enable OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  7. Regularly audit and update security headers and remove any deprecated or ineffective configurations.

Contact details published on the site

Legal name
Three Creeks Media, LLC
Registration number
company noted
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1, utilizing common web technologies such as jQuery, Chart.js, and Font Awesome for UI and data visualization. It uses Yoast SEO Premium for search engine optimization and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing tracking. Hosting and CDN services are provided by Cloudflare, but the SSL/TLS configuration is severely lacking, with no valid certificate and no TLS protocols enabled. Performance metrics are missing, indicating a lack of monitoring or reporting. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses preconnect and preload hints for fonts and stylesheets to improve loading. Accessibility features are basic, with some ARIA labels and semantic HTML elements. The technical debt includes outdated or missing SSL, malformed DNS CAA records, and no cookie consent mechanism, which pose risks to user 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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