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Is designboom.com a Scam? Security Check Results - Designboom

designboom.com Security Report Summary

designboom.com received a security score of 68 out of 100 in Guard's comprehensive security analysis, classified as "Moderate Risk". This report covers Designboom's website security posture. Designboom operates in the Media industry in N/a.

Designboom is a well-established digital magazine founded in 1999, specializing in architecture, design, and art news. It targets a professional and creative audience, offering daily news, interviews, event coverage, and a design shop. The website demonstrates a strong market position as a leading media outlet in its niche, supported by consistent branding and high-quality content. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager, Matomo Analytics, and a consent management platform, ensuring GDPR compliance and user privacy. Performance and mobile optimization are good, though accessibility could be improved. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, but lacks published security policies or incident response information. The absence of WHOIS data is a concern for transparency but does not detract from the site's apparent legitimacy based on content and social media presence. Overall, Designboom is a professional, trustworthy media platform with room for improvement in security transparency and contact information availability.

The security scan identified 27 findings across security headers, SSL/TLS, DNS health, email security, GDPR compliance, and NIS2 compliance analysis modules.

Technologies detected: WordPress, Google Tag Manager, Matomo Analytics, Consentmanager.net, Prebid.js, Google DoubleClick, Flickity carousel, Lato font, Fontello icons.

About this security scan

Guard performs automated security assessments of websites by analyzing SSL/TLS certificates, HTTP security headers, DNS configuration, email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), GDPR compliance indicators, NIS2 directive compliance, network exposure, and AI-powered business intelligence. Each report provides domain-specific findings, risk scores, and actionable recommendations.

D

Is designboom.com Safe? Security Analysis for Designboom

https://designboom.com

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MediaN/amedium
WordPressGoogle Tag ManagerMatomo AnalyticsConsentmanager.netPrebid.js+4 more
Analyzed 9/7/2025Completed 4:37:30 AM6mo ago
68
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

Above Media avg (58)

10,000+

Domains scanned

500+

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Domaindesignboom.com
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SEQ SIA

Lastadijas 12 k-3, Riga, Latvia, LV-1050

Reg. No. 40203410806 • VAT LV40203410806

Support: guard@offseq.com+371 2256 5353

AI Summary

Designboom is a well-established digital magazine founded in 1999, specializing in architecture, design, and art news. It targets a professional and creative audience, offering daily news, interviews, event coverage, and a design shop. The website demonstrates a strong market position as a leading media outlet in its niche, supported by consistent branding and high-quality content. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager, Matomo Analytics, and a consent management platform, ensuring GDPR compliance and user privacy. Performance and mobile optimization are good, though accessibility could be improved. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, but lacks published security policies or incident response information. The absence of WHOIS data is a concern for transparency but does not detract from the site's apparent legitimacy based on content and social media presence. Overall, Designboom is a professional, trustworthy media platform with room for improvement in security transparency and contact information availability.

Detected Technologies

WordPressGoogle Tag ManagerMatomo AnalyticsConsentmanager.netPrebid.jsGoogle DoubleClickFlickity carouselLato fontFontello icons

7 urgent findings need attention

7 high

Continuous monitoring

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Guard tracks your live infrastructure daily: certificate expiry, DNS & mail authentication drift, uptime changes, subdomain inventory, and unexpected tracker or content shifts. A full timeline captures every diff so you can prove remediation and spot regressions instantly.

Security drift alerts

Risk score drops, new high-severity issues, and header hardening gaps

Compliance watch

GDPR / NIS2 posture changes with governance evidence snapshots

Infrastructure surface

Unexpected open services, SSL expiry, DNS & email authentication changes

Content & tracker intelligence

Marketing tech shifts, analytics drift, and AI recommendation updates

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Security Headers

7 findings

30/100

GDPR Compliance

No critical findings yet

100/100

NIS2 Compliance

8 findings

17/100

Email Security

5 findings

60/100

🧠AI Business Intelligence

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

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

Designboom operates as a digital media publisher in the architecture and design sector, leveraging content marketing and advertising revenue streams. Its competitive advantage lies in its early establishment and reputation as a go-to source for design culture news. The business model includes editorial content, competitions, events, and an online shop. The target customers are professionals and enthusiasts in architecture and design worldwide. The company maintains a broad partnership ecosystem through social media and advertising networks. Growth indicators include frequent content updates and active social engagement. Strategic observations suggest enhancing direct contact channels and publishing formal security and privacy governance documents to strengthen business credibility.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. Use of multiple analytics and advertising scripts is managed with user consent. However, the lack of explicit security policies, incident response plans, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates gaps in transparency and readiness. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. The site would benefit from publishing a security.txt file and providing contact channels for security incidents. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be elevated with formal documentation and communication.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and user trust.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Designboom

Description:

est. 1999 designboom is the first and most popular digital magazine for architecture & design culture. daily news for a professional and creative audience.

Key Services:
daily newsarchitecture coveragedesign culture contentart newsinterviewscompetitionseventsshop
Content Quality:

excellent

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
WordPressGoogle Tag ManagerMatomo AnalyticsConsentmanager.netPrebid.jsGoogle DoubleClickFlickity carouselLato fontFontello icons
Frameworks:
WordPress theme framework
Platforms:
WordPress CMS
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
85/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Consent management platform for GDPR
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async scripts to improve load

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsMatomoMicrosoft Clarity
Tracking Level:extensive
Privacy Compliance:good

Advertising & Marketing

Ad Networks:
Google DoubleClickFuse PlatformConfiant
Tracking Pixels:
Microsoft ClarityMatomo
Marketing Tools:
Consentmanager.net
Transparency Level:good

Website Quality Assessment

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

Key Observations

1

Website is a professional digital magazine focused on architecture, design, and art.

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🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

30/100
Score

Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

HIGH

Forces HTTPS connections

Missing X-Content-Type-Options header

MEDIUM

Prevents MIME type sniffing

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

Missing Referrer-Policy header

LOW

Controls referrer information sent with requests

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

100/100
Score
No issues found

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

17/100
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

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📧Email Security

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

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

60/100
Score

DMARC not enforcing

MEDIUM

DMARC policy is set to "none"

No DKIM record found

MEDIUM

DKIM adds cryptographic signatures to emails

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 a mx ip4:194.233.167.77 include:t.contactlab.it include:_spf.xtsystem.it -all
DNS Lookups:4/10
Policy:-all
DMARC Details
Policy:none
Aggregate Reports:dmarc@xtsystem.it
Forensic Reports:dmarc@xtsystem.it

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

75/100
Score

SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

MEDIUM

SSL certificate expires in 83 days

Weak SSL Key Length

HIGH

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

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Certificate Details

Subject:designboom.com
Issuer:WE1
Valid Until:11/29/2025 (83 days)
SANs:designboom.com, *.designboom.com

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

80/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found

DMARC Policy Set to None

LOW

DMARC is configured but not enforcing any policy

DNS Records

A Records:104.26.12.2, 104.26.13.2, 172.67.72.110
AAAA Records:2606:4700:20::ac43:486e, 2606:4700:20::681a:c02, 2606:4700:20::681a:d02
Name Servers:
alex.ns.cloudflare.comDNS only
beth.ns.cloudflare.comDNS only
MX Records:
10: avas03.priv.cloud.xtsystem.it
SOA:Serial: 2382162579, TTL: 1800s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:48ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 a mx ip4:194.233.167.77 include:t.contactlab.it include:_spf.xtsystem.it -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

How does designboom.com compare?

See how designboom.com stacks up against similar websites in the same industry.

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

Designboom's technical infrastructure is based on WordPress CMS with a custom theme and uses modern web technologies including asynchronous JavaScript loading, responsive images, and a consent management platform. The site integrates multiple analytics tools (Google Analytics, Matomo, Microsoft Clarity) and advertising networks (Google DoubleClick, Fuse Platform). Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags, Open Graph, and structured data (JSON-LD). Accessibility is basic and could be improved. Hosting provider details are not explicit. The technical setup supports a professional digital media operation but should focus on continuous performance optimization and security audits.
Professional PDF & Marketing Data

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PDF Report & Export

PDF download, email delivery, unlock code

39.90 €one-time • Incl. 21% VAT

Marketing Intelligence

Contact emails, phone numbers & warm leads

49.90 €one-time • Incl. 21% VAT

Plan Comparison

FeaturePDF ReportMarketing+
Full security analysis
Professional PDF export
Email delivery
Lifetime access + unlock code
Contact emails & phones
Marketing outreach data

Already purchased?

Order summary

Domaindesignboom.com
Access tierFull report or marketing add-on

Digital reports are delivered immediately after payment. By continuing you acknowledge the withdrawal waiver described in our Returns & Refunds policy.

VisaMastercardApple PayGoogle Pay

Secure payments processed via EveryPay. Prices in EUR; Incl. 21% VAT.

SEQ SIA

Lastadijas 12 k-3, Riga, Latvia, LV-1050

Reg. No. 40203410806 • VAT LV40203410806

Support: guard@offseq.com+371 2256 5353

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