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Security report for westendverlag.de

Westend Verlag · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Westend Verlag is a German publishing company specializing in political, social, and cultural literature. The website serves as an e-commerce platform for books and eBooks, complemented by media content such as videos, podcasts, and commentary. The target audience is German-speaking readers interested in intellectual and political topics. The company maintains a consistent brand presence with a professional website design and clear navigation. Technically, the site uses modern JavaScript libraries, Google Analytics, and reCAPTCHA v3 for bot protection, hosted on a German hosting provider's infrastructure. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and bot protection but lacks visible security headers and a published security policy. Privacy compliance is partial, with a cookie consent mechanism but no accessible privacy policy or terms of service. Contact information is available via contact pages but lacks direct emails or phone numbers in the main content. Overall, the website is functional, professional, and moderately secure but could improve transparency and security practices.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of westendverlag.de. View the latest report

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

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

      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

  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 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';…
  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching westendverlag.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.

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
52
Security headers
60
Email security
55
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
65

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 westendverlag.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
25
Employees
0
Customers
24
Third parties
1
Weak passwords
16%

2 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 westendverlag.de.

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

Westend Verlag occupies a niche market in the German publishing industry, focusing on politically and socially relevant literature. Their business model includes direct online sales of physical books and eBooks, supplemented by media content to engage their audience. The company leverages Google services for analytics and security, indicating a moderate digital maturity. The absence of detailed registrant WHOIS data slightly reduces trust but aligns with typical hosting practices. The website's content and structure suggest a medium-sized enterprise with a focused market presence and a loyal intellectual readership. Growth opportunities may include expanding digital content offerings and enhancing compliance and security transparency.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses Google reCAPTCHA v3 to mitigate automated abuse, which are positive security measures. However, the lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options indicates room for improvement in hardening the site against common web attacks. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, which limits transparency and preparedness perception. Privacy compliance is partial, with cookie consent but no accessible privacy policy, which may pose regulatory risks under GDPR. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but would benefit from enhanced headers, published policies, and incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service accessible from the main navigation or footer.
  2. Implement and configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and trust.
  4. Add explicit contact information for data protection officer or security incident response.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Westend Verlag
Description
Westend Verlag is a German publishing company specializing in books across various themes including politics, society, health, economy, and culture. They offer new releases, signed copies, academic publications, and maintain a media library with videos, podcasts, and comments.
Key services
Book publishing, eBook sales, Media content (videos, podcasts, comments), Newsletter subscription
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google reCAPTCHA v3, Google Tag Manager, Tiny Slider (tns), PT Sans Google Font
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • IP anonymization in Google Analytics
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 for bot protection
  • Cookie consent mechanism enabled

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is primarily in German and focused on book publishing.
  3. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found on the homepage or main navigation.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is present and enabled.
  5. Contact information is available via contact pages but no direct emails or phone numbers found in the main HTML.
  6. Use of modern JavaScript libraries and Google services for analytics and bot protection.
  7. No visible security headers in the provided data; potential area for improvement.
  8. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  9. No explicit data protection officer contact found.
  10. Website design and navigation are professional and user-friendly.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern e-commerce platform, likely Shopware, using JavaScript libraries such as Tiny Slider for UI components and Google services for analytics and bot protection. The site loads Google Fonts and uses asynchronous script loading to optimize performance. Hosting is provided by rzone.de, a German hosting provider, ensuring regional compliance and latency benefits. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessible navigation. SEO is basic with meta tags and Open Graph data but lacks structured JSON-LD beyond the WebPage schema. Performance is moderate, with room for improvement in caching and asset optimization. No critical technical debt or risks were identified from the provided data.
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. 63/100Medium33 findingsView report
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