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Security report for wpln.org

WPLN Public Radio · Media · United States

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

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

WPLN Public Radio operates a well-established local news and NPR affiliate website serving Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The site offers a rich variety of local news stories, podcasts, and community engagement content, positioning itself as a trusted media source in the region. The business model is non-profit, relying on donations, sponsorships, and grants, with a clear focus on public media and community service. The website demonstrates a mature digital presence with integration of multiple analytics and marketing tools, social media channels, and a professional design that supports excellent user experience and accessibility. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no visible critical vulnerabilities, though improvements are recommended in DNSSEC and security headers. Privacy compliance is basic with a clear privacy policy but lacking explicit cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is credible, trustworthy, and professionally maintained, with a strong alignment between WHOIS registration data and business identity.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of wpln.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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. 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching wpln.org

This scan found 25 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
65
Security headers
15
Email security
75
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

WPLN Public Radio holds a strong market position as Nashville's NPR news station, targeting local residents interested in news, culture, and public affairs. Its competitive advantage lies in its local focus combined with NPR affiliation, providing trusted content and community engagement. Revenue streams include donations, sponsorships, and grants, supported by a transparent approach to funding and impact reporting. The partnership ecosystem includes sister stations and sponsorship platforms, enhancing reach and financial sustainability. Growth indicators include active podcast production, events, and digital engagement. The organization's operations reflect a strategic focus on public media service and community trust.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of DNSSEC and several recommended security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents areas for enhancement. The use of third-party scripts and analytics tools is managed with asynchronous loading, reducing performance impact but requiring ongoing vigilance for vulnerabilities. No incident response or security policy pages were found, indicating potential gaps in formal security governance documentation. Overall, the security maturity is moderate with room for improvement to align with best practices and compliance standards.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to improve privacy compliance and user transparency.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response information to enhance trust and preparedness.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
WPLN Public Radio
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
WPLN Public Radio
Description
Nashville's local news and NPR station providing local stories, podcasts, and public media content.
Key services
Local news reporting, NPR programming, Podcasts and radio shows, Community events, Donor support and fundraising
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Flickity, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Mailchimp
Frameworks
Genesis Framework
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure cookies (inferred)
  • Use of Google Tag Manager and Facebook Pixel with async loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Jetpack Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ad Manager
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, Chartbeat
Marketing tools
Mailchimp, AddToAny
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained public radio news site.
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and well organized.
  3. Strong social media integration and community engagement.
  4. Use of multiple analytics and marketing tools indicates mature digital presence.
  5. Security practices are good but could be improved with additional headers and DNSSEC.
  6. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and trustworthiness.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS using the Genesis Framework, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Flickity for UI components. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. Performance is moderate with asynchronous loading of analytics and marketing scripts. The site is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical debt appears low, but security enhancements and performance tuning could further improve resilience and user experience.
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. 61/100Medium35 findingsView report
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