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Security report for waff.com

WAFF · Media · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

51/100

Risk levelMedium

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

WAFF is a well-established local media company serving Huntsville, Alabama, providing comprehensive news, weather, and sports coverage. The website demonstrates a strong digital presence with rich content, video integration, and community engagement features. The technical infrastructure leverages modern web technologies and Arc Publishing CMS, ensuring good performance and mobile optimization. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support significantly impacts the security posture, exposing users to potential risks. Privacy policies and terms of service are well documented, indicating compliance awareness, though cookie consent mechanisms are lacking. Overall, WAFF presents a professional and trustworthy media outlet with room for security enhancements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

5 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

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

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

Keep watching waff.com

This scan found 17 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
0
Security headers
50
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

WAFF operates as a regional media broadcaster under Gray Local Media, targeting residents of the Tennessee Valley region. Its business model focuses on advertising revenue, digital content delivery, and community engagement. The company maintains partnerships with digital marketing firms, recruitment platforms, and streaming services to enhance its offerings. The content is professionally produced by a team of journalists and meteorologists, supporting a strong market position in local news. Growth indicators include active social media channels and digital streaming initiatives. The company’s transparent regulatory compliance and public inspection files reinforce its credibility.

Security posture

The website implements several security headers such as Content Security Policy and X-Content-Type-Options, which are positive indicators. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent critical vulnerabilities, undermining user data protection and trust. The short HSTS max-age and absence of OCSP stapling further weaken the security configuration. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are publicly available, which could be improved to enhance security culture and readiness. Overall, the security posture is basic and requires urgent upgrades to meet modern standards.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and enforce modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) for secure communications.
  3. Enhance HSTS policy by including subdomains and submitting for preload list.
  4. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
  5. Publish clear security policies including incident response and vulnerability disclosure to demonstrate security maturity.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Gray Local Media
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including React, Arc Publishing CMS, and integrates multiple third-party services for advertising, analytics, and content delivery. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with good SEO practices. Hosting appears to be managed by Gray Local Media with CDN support. Technical debt is minimal, but the lack of SSL and outdated security protocols pose operational risks. Opportunities exist to modernize security infrastructure and enhance privacy compliance features.
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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