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Is thenationalnews.com a Scam? Security Check Results - thenationalnews.com Reviews

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Is thenationalnews.com Safe? Security Analysis for The National - Latest world news, sport & opinion

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

MediaN/alarge
JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerCxenseParselyMicrosoft Clarity+1 more
Analyzed 9/5/2025Completed 12:08:28 PM
69
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

AI Summary

The National is a professional international news media website providing the latest world news, sports, and opinion articles. It targets a broad general audience interested in global events and regional news, with a business model centered on news publishing and digital content delivery. The website demonstrates a consistent brand presence and good content quality, supported by mobile-optimized design and internationalization features such as hreflang tags. Technically, the site employs modern JavaScript libraries and analytics tools including Google Tag Manager, Parsely, Cxense, and Microsoft Clarity, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. However, the absence of WHOIS data and lack of visible privacy and cookie policies represent gaps in transparency and compliance. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, but security headers and incident response information are missing. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance and domain registration transparency.

Detected Technologies

JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerCxenseParselyMicrosoft ClarityOpenTelemetry (implied by analytics scripts)

🧠AI Business Intelligence

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

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

The National operates as a significant player in the media sector, focusing on international news coverage with a regional emphasis. Its competitive advantage lies in its broad content offering and digital presence across web and mobile platforms. Revenue streams likely include advertising and possibly subscription or app monetization. The target customer segments are general news consumers, including expatriates and regional residents. The company appears to maintain partnerships with various analytics and tracking service providers but no explicit partner or subsidiary domains were identified. Growth indicators include app presence and extensive use of analytics. Strategic observations suggest the company should improve privacy compliance and domain registration transparency to strengthen market trust.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website exhibits a good security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and no exposed sensitive data detected. Use of asynchronous loading for third-party scripts reduces performance impact and potential attack surface. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and absence of a security.txt file or incident response contacts indicate areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were found in the analyzed content. Compliance gaps exist regarding privacy and cookie policies, which are critical under GDPR and similar regulations. Incident response readiness is unclear due to missing contact information. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by implementing recommended headers, transparency documents, and formal vulnerability disclosure mechanisms.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear user consent mechanisms to ensure GDPR compliance.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Description:

The latest international news, headlines and events from around the world

Key Services:
news publishingsports coverageopinion articles
Content Quality:

good

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
JavaScriptGoogle Tag ManagerCxenseParselyMicrosoft ClarityOpenTelemetry (implied by analytics scripts)
Platforms:
WebiOS appAndroid app
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
85/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async loading for analytics and tracking scripts

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsParselyMicrosoft ClarityCxense
Tracking Level:extensive
Privacy Compliance:poor

Advertising & Marketing

Tracking Pixels:
CxenseGoogle Analytics (via GTM)ParselyMicrosoft Clarity
Marketing Tools:
Parsely
Transparency Level:basic

Website Quality Assessment

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

Key Observations

1

Website is a professional news media outlet with international focus

🛡️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-Frame-Options header

HIGH

Prevents clickjacking attacks

Missing X-Content-Type-Options header

MEDIUM

Prevents MIME type sniffing

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

73/100
Score

No Cookie Consent Banner found

HIGH

GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

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

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

📧Email Security

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

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

80/100
Score

Complex SPF record

LOW

Too many include statements can cause lookup limits

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 include:spf.mandrillapp.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.uae.exclaimer.net include:amazonses.com include:_spf.psm.knowbe4.com -all
DNS Lookups:5/10
Policy:-all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:k2(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:selector1(1416-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:reject
Aggregate Reports:bw9lkin4@ag.ap.dmarcian.com
Forensic Reports:bw9lkin4@fr.ap.dmarcian.com

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

95/100
Score

SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

MEDIUM

SSL certificate expires in 40 days

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Certificate Details

Subject:thenational.web.arc-cdn.net
Issuer:R10
Valid Until:10/16/2025 (40 days)
SANs:amp.thenationalnews.com, m.thenationalnews.com, thenational.web.arc-cdn.net +2 more

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

85/100
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 Registration Details

Domain Age
20 years(mature)
Expiry Risk
low(128 days)
Protection Level
strongDNSSEC OFF

DNS Records

A Records:13.248.163.249, 76.223.41.28
Name Servers:
ns05.domaincontrol.com
ns06.domaincontrol.com
MX Records:
0: thenationalnews-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
SOA:Serial: 2025071401, TTL: 600s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:59ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 include:spf.mandrillapp.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.uae.exclaimer.net include:amazonses.com include:_spf.psm.knowbe4.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 uses a modern technology stack with JavaScript frameworks and multiple analytics/tracking services integrated via asynchronous scripts. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts with preconnect optimizations. The site is mobile-optimized and uses canonical and hreflang tags for SEO and internationalization. No CMS was explicitly detected from the HTML content. Hosting provider details are not evident. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in accessibility features. Technical debt appears low but the absence of security headers and privacy compliance documents suggests areas for modernization. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional news media operation but could benefit from enhanced security and privacy technical controls.
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