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Security report for visualjournal.it

Visual Journal · Media · Italy

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

51/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Visual Journal is a niche design blog operated by Alessandro Scarpellini, focusing on curated branding and graphic design projects worldwide. The site targets design professionals and enthusiasts, offering high-quality editorial content without advertising or sponsorships, maintaining independence and quality. The business model is primarily content curation with voluntary project submissions and optional user contributions. The website is well-branded and consistent, with a clear focus on visual communication and strategy. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript libraries for infinite scrolling and lazy loading, providing a good user experience and mobile optimization. However, there is no detected CMS or hosting provider information. Performance is moderate, and SEO practices are good with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS but lacks DNSSEC and security headers, which lowers its security posture. There are no privacy or cookie policies, and no incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are evident. The WHOIS data is consistent and transparent, supporting the legitimacy of the domain and business. Overall, the site is safe, professional, and trustworthy but could improve compliance and security practices. The overall risk is moderate with recommendations to enhance security headers, enable DNSSEC, and add privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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

  3. 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 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';…

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

Keep watching visualjournal.it

This scan found 25 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.

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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
62
Security headers
75
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
10
Average
51

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 visualjournal.it, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for visualjournal.it 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

Visual Journal occupies a niche position in the design media sector, leveraging the personal brand of Alessandro Scarpellini to curate and showcase high-quality branding and graphic design projects. Its competitive advantage lies in its independence from ads and sponsorships, appealing to a discerning audience of design professionals and studios. The business model is content-driven with voluntary submissions and community support via donations. Growth potential exists through expanded social media engagement and possible partnerships. The company operates primarily in Italy with a small team or individual operation. No parent or subsidiary companies are identified. The partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms but no direct business partners are evident from the data.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with HTTPS enabled, ensuring encrypted communications. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options exposes the site to potential DNS spoofing and clickjacking risks. No privacy or cookie policies are present, indicating compliance gaps with GDPR and other privacy regulations. There is no visible incident response contact or vulnerability disclosure mechanism, which limits transparency and readiness for security incidents. The site does not use any known vulnerable libraries based on the provided scripts. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but requires improvements to meet best practices and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement essential security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to enhance GDPR compliance and user trust.
  4. Add a security.txt file and dedicated incident response contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and libraries to avoid introducing vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Visual Journal
Description
Visual Journal is a blog showcasing curated branding and graphic design projects worldwide, managed by Alessandro Scarpellini, an Italian art director and design manager specializing in strategy, branding, and visual communication.
Key services
branding project curation, graphic design showcase, design inspiration and editorial content
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, infinitescroll.min.js, lazyload.min.js
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  2. Contact information limited to a single email address; no phone or physical address provided.
  3. No forms detected on the site for data collection.
  4. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information available.
  5. No security headers detected in the provided data; DNSSEC not enabled.
  6. Website uses HTTPS and modern JavaScript libraries for infinite scroll and lazy loading.
  7. Social media presence is active and linked to Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
  8. No advertising or tracking scripts detected; site is ad-free by design.
  9. Content is curated and high quality, targeting design professionals and enthusiasts.
  10. No signs of adult or questionable content; safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built with standard web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, utilizing libraries for infinite scrolling and lazy loading to enhance user experience. The site is mobile optimized and SEO friendly with well-structured meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS or hosting provider information is detected, suggesting a custom or static site deployment. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement through optimization of assets and caching. Accessibility is basic, with scope to improve ARIA roles and keyboard navigation. The absence of security headers and DNSSEC indicates technical debt in security configuration. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security controls.
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. 52/100Medium32 findingsView report
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