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https://theintercept.com

Infrastructure

· 9 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
92
GRADE
A
FIX
1
REVIEW
2
PASS
6
INFO
0
Probed from Santa Clara, United States
200 OK
Checks
9
6 PASS 2 REVIEW 1 FIX
D
CDN & Delivery
Action
No CDN detected
FIX
No CDN detected
Warning::
No CDN detected
A CDN can significantly improve load times for users around the world by caching content at edge nodes closer to them.
No CDN detected

Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.

C
IPv6 Readiness
Action
No IPv6 support
REVIEW
No IPv6 support
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records found
IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.
No IPv6 Support
About 40% of internet users have IPv6. Consider adding AAAA records.

IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

Why this matters

No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.

Source: Google IPv6 stats

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
31 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

31
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Add includeSubDomains to the HSTS directive
  • Add the preload directive and submit to hstspreload.org once max-age + includeSubDomains are in place
  • Enable OCSP stapling on your TLS server to remove a CA roundtrip and protect user privacy
A+
DNS Records
1 A records, 7 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 7 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 192.0.66.199
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
2 nameserver(s) configured
Got: dora.ns.cloudflare.com, lamar.ns.cloudflare.com
Info::
2 mail exchanger(s) configured
Info::
CAA records not checked
CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
Info::
SPF record present in TXT
Info::
DNS resolution time: 7 ms
Got: 7 ms
A192.0.66.199
AAAA—
CNAME—
NSdora.ns.cloudflare.com, lamar.ns.cloudflare.com
MX
10 mail.protonmail.ch
20 mailsec.protonmail.ch
TXT
apple-domain-verification=nuWNBRgq7Tbv7H4V
facebook-domain-verification=o4e91x4ku9ni6lkevwxuz63bgud0r4
protonmail-verification=92f35641de8e4632b9a6df3dee851ac3ab3bfa64
google-site-verification=ia8pDB7xsp05F2zwBWCjiU_jk6uvoi-gztZ5QUE0B1I
SPF v=spf1 include:_spf.protonmail.ch include:_spf.psm.knowbe4.com mx ~all
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 7 ms

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

Why this matters

Single A record means a single point of failure — if that IP goes down, your site is unreachable until DNS TTL expires.

Learn more ▾

Add multiple A records for round-robin failover, or use a managed DNS provider with health-checked failover (Route 53, Cloudflare, NS1). Short TTL (60-300s) lets clients recover faster on outages.

Source: SRE practice / DNS architecture

CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.

Why this matters

Informational: CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) records weren't checked in this scan.

A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://theintercept.com

https://theintercept.com

13 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://theintercept.com20013 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 31 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 31 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 517 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 31 entries
Info::
Sitemap index with 31 child sitemaps
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 517 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents *, Amazonbot, anthropic-ai, AhrefsBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User Blocking No — crawling allowed
# Start Block AI Crawlers
User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: AhrefsBot
Disallow: /

User-Agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /
# End Block AI Crawlers

    # START YOAST BLOCK
# ---------------------------
User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: https://theintercept.com/sitemap_index.xml
# ---------------------------
# END YOAST BLOCK
sitemap.xml 200 OK
Type Sitemap Index URLs 31 entries Valid XML Yes
Child Sitemaps:
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: non-www)
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

301https://www.theintercept.com/
200https://theintercept.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://theintercept.com/ → https://theintercept.com/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
theintercept.com — via Gandi SAS, 16 years, 9 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
PASS
theintercept.com — via Gandi SAS, 16 years, 9 months old, hosted on WordPress.com (Automattic)
Info::
Domain registered until Oct 1, 2026 (5 months remaining)
Info::
DNSSEC is enabled
Info::
Registrar: Gandi SAS
Warning::
Registrar lock is NOT enabled
The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
Info::
Hosting: WordPress.com (Automattic)
Got: AS2635
Domain expiry

107 days

October 1, 2026

SSL certificate

31 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

16 years, 9 months

Registered October 1, 2009

DNSSEC

Enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

WordPress.com (Automattic)

ASN AS2635

192.0.66.199

Registrar

Gandi SAS

Unlocked 2 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar Gandi SAS
Created October 1, 2009 (16 years, 9 months ago)
Expires October 1, 2026 (5 months)
Last Updated August 31, 2025
Name Servers dora.ns.cloudflare.com, lamar.ns.cloudflare.com
DNSSEC Enabled
Hosting
IP Address 192.0.66.199
ASN AS2635 (AUTOMATTIC - Automattic, Inc, US)
Provider WordPress.com (Automattic)
Data source: rdap (0.1s)

The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.

Why this matters

Without registrar lock, an attacker who phishes your registrar credentials can transfer the domain in minutes — total brand hijack.

Learn more ▾

Registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited) requires extra verification before any transfer/update/delete. Every major registrar offers it free. Combined with 2FA on your registrar account, it's the strongest defense against domain hijacking.

Source: ICANN / domain-security best practice

A+
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 16 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
5 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
2 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
5 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
15 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
17 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 5 ms TCP Connect 2 ms TLS Handshake 5 ms Server Processing 3 ms Content Transfer 2 ms
All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.

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