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Is degruyterbrill.com a Scam? Security Check Results - Walter de Gruyter GmbH Reviews

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Is degruyterbrill.com Safe? Security Analysis for Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Check if degruyterbrill.com is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

EducationGermanylarge
JavaScriptBootstrapFontAwesomeGoogle Tag ManagerAltmetric badges
Analyzed 9/7/2025Completed 4:38:41 AM
74
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

AI Summary

De Gruyter Brill is a well-established, independent academic publisher with a rich history spanning over 300 years. The company specializes in publishing scholarly books, journals, and online resources primarily in the humanities and related academic fields. Their business model includes both traditional subscription and open access publishing, targeting authors, librarians, researchers, and academic institutions globally. The website reflects a professional and comprehensive digital presence, supporting various user roles with dedicated resources and clear navigation. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Bootstrap, FontAwesome, and Google Tag Manager, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. The site is well-optimized for SEO and mobile devices, with good performance metrics. Security best practices are observed with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, although explicit security and incident response policies are not prominently published. The security posture is strong with no evident vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies, including consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR requirements. However, WHOIS data for the domain is unavailable or privacy protected, which is common for enterprises but slightly reduces transparency. Overall, the website and business demonstrate a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and digital maturity. Strategic recommendations include publishing explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information to further enhance trust and compliance.

Detected Technologies

JavaScriptBootstrapFontAwesomeGoogle Tag ManagerAltmetric badges

🧠AI Business Intelligence

Technology stack, business insights, and market analysis powered by AI.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

De Gruyter Brill holds a strong market position as a global leader in academic publishing, particularly in the humanities. Their competitive advantage lies in their long-standing history, diverse portfolio of imprints and brands, and commitment to open access publishing. Revenue streams likely include book and journal sales, institutional subscriptions, and open access fees. The target customer segments are academic authors, libraries, and researchers worldwide. Growth indicators include a broad subject coverage and active engagement with authors and librarians through dedicated resources. The partnership ecosystem includes multiple subsidiary brands and service domains such as checkout.degruyterbrill.com for payment processing. The company maintains a consistent brand presence and invests in digital content and marketing.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implemented, including HSTS, CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options. No exposed sensitive information or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Forms appear to be secured, and cookie consent mechanisms are in place. However, the absence of publicly available security policies, incident response procedures, and vulnerability disclosure channels indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. There is no evidence of malware or phishing indicators. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by publishing formal security documentation and contact points.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security practices and controls.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Description:

Independent, family-owned academic publisher and a global leader in the humanities and beyond with over 300 years of publishing excellence.

Key Services:
Publishing booksPublishing journalsOnline academic resourcesOpen Access publishing
Content Quality:

excellent

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
JavaScriptBootstrapFontAwesomeGoogle Tag ManagerAltmetric badges
Frameworks:
Bootstrap
Platforms:
Web
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

good

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
85/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with CSRF tokens likely

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsAltmetric
Tracking Level:moderate
Privacy Compliance:good

Advertising & Marketing

Tracking Pixels:
Altmetric
Transparency Level:basic

Website Quality Assessment

Design Quality:excellent
User Experience:excellent
Content Relevance:excellent
Navigation Clarity:excellent
Professionalism:excellent
Trustworthiness:high

Key Observations

1

Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation.

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

80/100
Score

Weak Referrer-Policy configuration

LOW

Current value: "origin-when-cross-origin, strict-origin-when-cross-origin"

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

83/100
Score

No Data Protection Officer mentioned

LOW

Large organizations may need to designate a DPO under GDPR

Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

MEDIUM

Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

GDPR Compliance Analysis

Privacy Policy85% confidence
Cookie Policy85% confidence
Contact Information Found90% confidence
phone

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

2/100
Score

No information security framework found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity and information security measures

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure

No security policy documentation found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity governance and risk management

No incident response procedures found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented incident response and business continuity plans

No business continuity planning found

MEDIUM

NIS2 emphasizes operational resilience and business continuity

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts

Critical sector without clear security compliance

HIGH

Detected sectors: transport, banking, digital

📧Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation and email security assessment.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

85/100
Score

No BIMI Record

LOW

BIMI displays brand logos in email clients

No MTA-STS Policy

MEDIUM

MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

No TLS-RPT Record

LOW

TLS-RPT provides reporting for email TLS issues

SPF
Sender Policy Framework
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication
MX Records
Mail Exchange Records
BIMI
Brand Indicators
MTA-STS
Mail Transfer Agent Security
TLS-RPT
TLS Reporting
DNSSEC
DNS Security
SPF Details
Record:
v=spf1 ip4:46.30.81.128/27 ip4:217.110.58.242 ip4:72.22.165.246 ip4:46.30.84.112/28 ip4:107.21.37.86 ip4:81.223.2.116 ip4:62.214.112.206 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf1.degruyterbrill.com include:spf2.degruyterbrill.com -all
DNS Lookups:3/10
Policy:-all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:k2(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:selector1(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:selector2(1416-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:quarantine
Subdomain Policy:quarantine
Aggregate Reports:dmarc-reports@degruyterbrill.com
Forensic Reports:office365alerts@microsoft.com

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

90/100
Score

Mixed Content Detected

MEDIUM

1 resources loaded over insecure HTTP

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Certificate Details

Subject:*.degruyterbrill.com
Issuer:Amazon RSA 2048 M02
Valid Until:3/21/2026 (195 days)
SANs:*.degruyterbrill.com

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

70/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found

Domain Transfer Lock Not Enabled

MEDIUM

Domain can be transferred without authorization

Domain Delete Lock Not Enabled

LOW

Domain can be deleted without additional verification

Domain Registration Details

Domain Age
1 years(established)
Expiry Risk
none(398 days)
Protection Level
noneDNSSEC OFF
Suspicious Indicators Detected
  • No domain protection locks enabled

DNS Records

A Records:52.59.135.117, 35.157.6.212, 18.195.226.206
Name Servers:
ns-1335.awsdns-38.org
ns-1776.awsdns-30.co.uk
ns-379.awsdns-47.com
ns-617.awsdns-13.net
MX Records:
0: degruyterbrill-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
SOA:Serial: 1, TTL: 86400s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:145ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 ip4:46.30.81.128/27 ip4:217.110.58.242 ip4:72.22.165.246 ip4:46.30.84.112/28 ip4:107.21.37.86 ip4:81.223.2.116 ip4:62.214.112.206 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf1.degruyterbrill.com include:spf2.degruyterbrill.com -all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website is built using a modern tech stack with Bootstrap for responsive design, FontAwesome for icons, and JavaScript libraries for interactivity and analytics integration. The presence of Google Tag Manager and Altmetric badges indicates advanced analytics and research impact tracking. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with preloaded fonts and images to improve performance. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Hosting provider details are not disclosed. Performance is moderate with good SEO and accessibility features. Technical risks are minimal, but continuous monitoring of third-party dependencies is advised to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
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