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Security report for westfalen-blatt.de

Westfalen-Blatt · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 6 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

Westfalen-Blatt is a well-established regional news media company serving the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region in Germany. The website offers comprehensive news coverage, including local events, sports, and classifieds, supported by subscription and advertising revenue models. It is part of the larger Zeitungsgruppe Münster media group, indicating a strong market position in regional media. The site is professionally designed with consistent branding and good content quality targeting a general audience in Germany.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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 westfalen-blatt.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
67
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
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 westfalen-blatt.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
124
Employees
0
Customers
124
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
10%

6 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 westfalen-blatt.de.

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

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Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The company leverages multiple digital platforms including ePaper and subscription services to diversify revenue streams. It maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with its parent company and related domains for account management and ePaper delivery. The business model focuses on regional news dissemination with a clear emphasis on local sports and events, supported by advertising networks and newsletters. The presence of detailed navigation and topical segmentation indicates a mature content strategy aimed at retaining and growing its audience base.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security posture with enforced HTTPS, secure cookie flags, and a consent management platform ensuring GDPR compliance. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the site avoids exposing sensitive data and uses modern tracking technologies responsibly. However, there is room for improvement in publishing explicit incident response contacts and vulnerability disclosure policies. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious patterns were detected, reflecting a mature security culture aligned with industry standards.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency with security researchers.
  3. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher compliance standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  4. Provide explicit incident response contact information to improve readiness and trust in handling security incidents.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking technologies to ensure they remain secure and privacy-compliant.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Westfalen-Blatt
Description
News und Meldungen aus OWL, aktuelle Nachrichten und Fotos aus Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Deutschland und der Welt.
Key services
News publishing, ePaper subscription, Advertising services, Event information, Newsletter distribution
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Google Tag Manager, FingerprintJS, Consentmanager.net CMP, Marfeel SDK, IOMm (web analytics), Lazy loading images
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie SameSite=Strict and Secure flags used
  • Consent management platform for GDPR compliance
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
IOMm, Google Tag Manager, Marfeel SDK, webstats1.de
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Nativendo
Tracking pixels
Cleverpush, Consentmanager.net CMP, Marfeel SDK, IOMm
Marketing tools
FingerprintJS
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional regional news portal for Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany.
  2. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent management implemented.
  3. Use of modern tracking and analytics tools with moderate user tracking.
  4. No signs of adult or explicit content; safe for general audiences.
  5. No WAF or blocking detected; full content accessible.
  6. Good security posture with HTTPS and cookie security flags.
  7. Clear navigation and extensive content structure covering regional news, sports, events, and classifieds.
  8. Multiple external domains related to advertising, analytics, and partner services.
  9. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern JavaScript-based tech stack including Google Tag Manager, FingerprintJS for visitor identification, and a Consent Manager platform for GDPR compliance. It employs lazy loading for images and integrates Marfeel SDK for mobile optimization. The CMS appears to be a proprietary or specialized publishing platform used by the parent media group. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Hosting and DNS are managed via ICS Media, indicating professional infrastructure. Opportunities exist to improve accessibility and security header implementations.
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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