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Security report for washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post · Media · United States

Partial score · DNS & email only

69/100

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

The Washington Post is a leading American news media organization providing breaking news, investigative journalism, analysis, and multimedia content across a broad spectrum of topics including politics, business, technology, health, and lifestyle. The website serves a wide audience interested in national and international news, operating on a subscription and advertising-based business model. The brand is well-established with a founding date of 1877, reflecting a long-standing market presence. Technically, the website employs a modern technology stack including Next.js, various advertising and analytics platforms such as Google Tag Manager, Chartbeat, and Permutive, and integrates multiple ad networks and tracking services. The site demonstrates excellent performance, mobile optimization, and SEO practices, ensuring a high-quality user experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses standard security headers, and implements GDPR-compliant privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of publicly available WHOIS domain registration data is unusual for such a prominent entity and slightly impacts the trust assessment. Overall, the website is professional, secure, and compliant with privacy regulations, though the WHOIS data gap suggests a need for further verification of domain registration details. Strategic recommendations include enhancing transparency around incident response, maintaining rigorous third-party script audits, and considering a public vulnerability disclosure policy.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 100 · Low
Checks completed
6of 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. 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

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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Keep watching washingtonpost.com

This scan found 8 issues across 5 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
0
Email security
72
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
69

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 washingtonpost.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
24,201
Employees
0
Customers
24,140
Third parties
61
Weak passwords
12%

53 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for washingtonpost.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The Washington Post holds a strong market position as a major media outlet in the United States, targeting a broad demographic interested in comprehensive news coverage. Its competitive advantage lies in its established brand, quality journalism, and diversified content offerings. Revenue streams primarily include subscriptions and advertising. The company leverages partnerships with multiple advertising networks and analytics providers to optimize monetization and audience insights. Growth indicators include extensive digital presence and adoption of modern web technologies. The partnership ecosystem includes major ad and tracking platforms but no direct subsidiaries or parent company information was identified from the website content.

Security posture

The Washington Post exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, robust security headers, and GDPR-compliant privacy practices. The use of a consent management platform and detailed policies indicates strong compliance culture. No direct incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms were found, representing a potential gap in transparency and readiness. The extensive use of third-party scripts necessitates ongoing security audits to mitigate supply chain risks. Overall, the site balances user privacy and security effectively but could improve by publishing explicit security contacts and vulnerability disclosure information.

Recommendations

  1. Publish clear incident response and security contact information on the website.
  2. Implement and publicize a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to minimize supply chain risks.
  4. Enhance transparency around data retention policies and user data handling.
  5. Maintain continuous compliance monitoring for evolving privacy regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Washington Post
Description
Breaking news, live coverage, investigations, analysis, video, photos and opinions from The Washington Post. Subscribe for the latest on U.S. and international news, politics, business, technology, climate change, health and wellness, sports, science, weather, lifestyle and more.
Key services
News reporting, Investigative journalism, Video content, Opinion pieces
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, Chartbeat, DoubleClick, Criteo, Outbrain, Amazon Ads, Permutive, OneTrust, React (implied by Next.js usage)
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • Consent management for GDPR
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Permutive
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google AdTech, AppNexus, Criteo, Outbrain, Amazon Ads, Teads, Casale Media, Krux (Krxd)
Tracking pixels
Chartbeat, Permutive
Marketing tools
Permutive
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content
  2. No WAF or security challenge blocking detected
  3. Strong use of modern web technologies and analytics
  4. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on homepage
  6. WHOIS data missing or not publicly available, unusual for domain
  7. Advertising and tracking scripts are extensive but standard for media sites
  8. High quality and professional design and content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern JavaScript framework (Next.js) and integrates multiple third-party services for advertising, analytics, and user consent management. Performance is optimized with preconnect and dns-prefetch hints, asynchronous script loading, and responsive design. Accessibility features are present but could be further enhanced with explicit ARIA roles and landmarks. The technical infrastructure supports a fast, mobile-optimized user experience with comprehensive SEO metadata and structured data. Potential technical risks include reliance on numerous third-party scripts which require vigilant security management to prevent vulnerabilities.
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. 69/100Medium16 findings · partial scanView report
  2. 69/100Medium15 findings · partial scanView report
  3. 69/100Medium16 findings · partial scanView report
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