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Security report for wdr.de

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) operates a comprehensive regional public broadcasting website offering news, video, audio, and cultural content primarily targeting the population of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The site demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with modern streaming technologies, structured metadata, and good SEO and accessibility practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no evident vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and policies are not fully disclosed. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies and lack of consent mechanisms. The domain appears legitimate and consistent with a public media entity, though WHOIS data is minimal. Overall, the website is professional, content-rich, and trustworthy but could improve transparency in privacy and security policies.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

6 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 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. 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"

    • 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';…

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Keep watching wdr.de

This scan found 24 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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  • 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
80
Security headers
40
Email security
55
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
62

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 wdr.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
663
Employees
0
Customers
569
Third parties
94
Weak passwords
13%

30 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 wdr.de.

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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

WDR holds a strong market position as a major public broadcaster in Germany's NRW region, delivering diverse media content including news, sports, culture, and entertainment. Its business model is public service broadcasting, funded likely by public fees and government support. The website serves a broad general audience with high-quality content and consistent branding. The technical infrastructure leverages Akamai CDN for media delivery and uses a CMS inferred as Sophora. There is no evidence of commercial advertising or affiliate partnerships on the site. The organization maintains a strong trust profile but lacks visible direct contact information and formal policy disclosures on the website.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses modern web technologies with no visible security vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and does not publish security or incident response policies or contacts. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files are found. Privacy compliance is limited, with no cookie consent or privacy policy detected, which could pose regulatory risks under GDPR. The absence of contact information for security incidents reduces incident response readiness. Overall, the security posture is good technically but could be enhanced with better policy transparency and user privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to inform and obtain user consent for tracking.
  3. Add explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Provide clear contact information for general inquiries and security incident reporting.
  5. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
Description
WDR provides current news, video and audio contributions, background reports, and interviews from areas such as news, sports, knowledge, consumer affairs, culture, and entertainment. It also offers information about all TV shows and radio stations of WDR.
Key services
News reporting, Video and audio media content, Cultural and entertainment programming, Regional information services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, HLS streaming, JSON-LD structured data, CSS preloading, HTML5 video and audio, Akamai CDN
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async loading for scripts
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a major regional public broadcaster site with rich multimedia content.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided HTML.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and structured data for SEO and accessibility.
  5. No signs of adult or unsafe content.
  6. No WAF or blocking detected; content fully accessible.
  7. WHOIS data is minimal but domain appears legitimate.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including JavaScript, HLS streaming for video, JSON-LD structured data for SEO, and CSS preloading for performance. Media content is delivered via Akamai CDN, ensuring fast and reliable streaming. The site is mobile optimized with good accessibility features and clear navigation. The CMS appears to be Sophora, a professional content management system used by broadcasters. Performance is fast with asynchronous script loading and preconnect hints. There is room for improvement in security header implementation and privacy compliance mechanisms.
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. 61/100Medium33 findingsView report
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