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Security report for wittich.de

LINUS WITTICH Medien Gruppe · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

LINUS WITTICH Medien Gruppe is a well-established German media company specializing in local newspapers, magazines, and digital media services. With over 60 years of history and multiple locations across Germany and Austria, it serves a broad audience including citizens, municipalities, businesses, and tourism sectors. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of print and digital products, advertising solutions, and related services, supported by a strong online presence and multiple specialized portals. Technically, the website is built on TYPO3 CMS with modern frontend frameworks like Bootstrap 5 and integrates various JavaScript libraries for enhanced user experience. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly. Google Analytics is used with IP anonymization, and cookie consent mechanisms are implemented, reflecting good privacy compliance. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses cookie consent with opt-in/out, and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, explicit security headers are not clearly visible in the HTML source and could be improved. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected. The WHOIS data aligns well with the business claims, supporting legitimacy and trust. Overall, LINUS WITTICH Medien Gruppe presents a professional, secure, and user-friendly digital footprint with strong business credibility. Strategic improvements in security headers and public security policies could further enhance their security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
48/ 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

4 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. 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
  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: vodafone-gw.wittich.de

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching wittich.de

This scan found 21 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
77
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
50
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
48
Average
72

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 wittich.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
376
Employees
0
Customers
376
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
22%

16 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 wittich.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

LINUS WITTICH Medien Gruppe holds a strong market position as a regional media provider with a diversified business model combining print and digital media. Their revenue streams include newspaper and magazine sales, advertising, printing services, and digital platform subscriptions. The company targets local citizens, municipalities, businesses, and tourism sectors, leveraging cross-media offerings and digital innovation. Their partnership ecosystem includes subsidiaries and specialized portals enhancing service delivery. Growth indicators include digital transformation initiatives and multiple online portals. The company emphasizes customer service with physical locations and digital accessibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and privacy-conscious analytics implementation. Cookie consent mechanisms comply with GDPR requirements. However, the absence of explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy in the HTML source suggests room for improvement. No incident response or security policy pages were found, indicating a potential gap in transparency. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the security culture appears adequate but could benefit from formalized policies and enhanced header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly configure security headers such as X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Content-Security-Policy.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Enhance user awareness and trust by providing transparency about data protection and security measures.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
LINUS WITTICH Medien Gruppe
Description
LINUS WITTICH liefert lokale Informationen, die wirklich interessieren. Medienpartner für Kommunen und Unternehmen mit über 1000 Amtsblätter. Bietet Zeitungen, Zeitschriften, Drucksachen, Bücher, Online-Portale, Anzeigen, Dienstleistungen und Zustellung.
Key services
Local newspapers and magazines, Print and digital publishing, Advertising and classifieds, Online portals and apps, Printing services, Distribution and delivery
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Bootstrap 5, FontAwesome, Google Analytics, jQuery, autoComplete.js, baguetteBox.js
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS, Bootstrap
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in/out
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Comprehensive local media service provider with strong regional presence.
  2. Well-structured website with extensive navigation and content.
  3. Good privacy and cookie compliance with user consent mechanisms.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (TYPO3).
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  6. Multiple online portals and digital services integrated.
  7. Clear business and contact information available.
  8. No exposed sensitive data or security misconfigurations detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on TYPO3 CMS, a robust and widely used content management system, combined with Bootstrap 5 for responsive design and FontAwesome for icons. JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, autoComplete.js, and baguetteBox.js enhance interactivity and user experience. Google Analytics is integrated with IP anonymization for privacy. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in loading speed. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting the company's digital transformation goals.
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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