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WikiCyber:Terms of Use

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Revision as of 20:42, 31 October 2026 by Maintenance script (talk | contribs) (Minor Terms of Use update supplied by site owner)

Effective Date: 31 October 2026  |  Last Updated: 31 October 2026

These Terms of Use (these "Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you and the Operator (as defined below) governing your access to and use of the WikiCyber website located at https://wikicyber.org, together with its pages, content, and related services (collectively, the "Site").

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS, INCLUDING THE LIABILITY LIMITS IN SECTION 11 AND THE INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AGREEMENT IN SECTIONS 15.12–15.15. ARBITRATION REPLACES A COURT TRIAL FOR COVERED DISPUTES; YOU MAY OPT OUT WITHIN 30 DAYS AS EXPLAINED IN SECTION 15.15. You accept these Terms by checking an acceptance box or taking another affirmative action that expressly states that you agree to them after being given a conspicuous link and an opportunity to read them. Mere browsing does not, by itself, constitute acceptance of the arbitration agreement or other contractual waivers. Account creation, contributions, and Terminal Service access require acceptance. Publicly licensed Content remains available under its applicable license independently of acceptance. You must be at least 13 to use the Site; account holders must meet Section 3.9, including its parental-consent requirements where applicable.

1. Introduction and Definitions

1.1 The Operator. WikiCyber is a free educational project operated by Shore-Roger Enterprises LLC, a California limited liability company (the "Operator", "we", "us", or "our"). The Site is an encyclopedia-style reference of cybersecurity guides, tutorials, and articles written by contributors and is made available free of charge. This description does not represent that the Operator is a nonprofit or tax-exempt organization.

1.2 Definitions. In these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise:

"Author" means a natural person to whom the Operator has issued an account on the Site and who creates, edits, or submits Content.
"Content" means all text, code, images, data, and other material made available on the Site, including Contributions.
"Contribution" means any Content that an Author creates, edits, or submits to the Site, whether or not it has been published, including articles, drafts, sandbox pages, talk-page comments, and edit summaries. Private communications, personal account information, terminal activity, and competition submissions are not Contributions merely because they are sent to the Operator; Sections 6.6 and 10 govern those materials.
"License" means the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
"Supplemental Policies" means the Privacy policy and the General disclaimer, to the extent actually published, made available before acceptance, and applicable to the service used, subject to Sections 14 and 15.6.
"Terminal Service" means the optional hands-on practice and competition environments that the Operator may offer through the Site, in which you are given a temporary virtual machine that you operate through a browser-based terminal, together with the booking, scoring, and results features that accompany them.
"Competition" means a scheduled, scored event run through the Terminal Service, and "Competition Account" means an account issued only to take part in one or more Competitions.
"User" or "you" means any person or entity that accesses or uses the Site, including any Author.
"WikiCyber Parties" means the Operator and its owners, officers, administrators, agents, volunteers, and Authors.

1.3 Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms. The word "including" means "including without limitation." References to a statute or regulation are to that statute or regulation as amended or replaced from time to time.

1.4 Availability of the Site. The Operator may modify, suspend, restrict, or discontinue the Site, or any part of it, at any time, subject to applicable law and the protections in Sections 11.4 and 14.

2. Content License and Contributions

2.1 License to Content

2.1.1 Unless a page or item expressly states otherwise, publicly accessible editorial Content is made available to the public, free of charge, under the License. Subject to and in accordance with the License, you may copy, redistribute, and adapt the Content for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that you comply with the License, including the following conditions:

(a) Attribution. You must give appropriate credit to WikiCyber and its Authors, provide a link to the License, and indicate whether changes were made. A hyperlink or URL to the page you used, or to its history page, ordinarily identifies the Authors; retain other attribution, copyright, license, and disclaimer notices to the extent required by the License.
(b) ShareAlike. If you share adapted material, you must apply the License or a permitted compatible license as required by the License. There is no obligation to publish a private adaptation.

2.1.2 Private sandbox material, account data, terminal recordings, competition answers, unreleased exercise materials, scoring configurations, and third-party software are not offered under the License merely because they are stored on or accessible through the Site. Their applicable permissions or licenses control. Section 2.1.1 is a summary provided for convenience and is not a substitute for the License. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and the License, the License governs the rights it grants. These Terms do not impose additional restrictions on exercise of licensed rights, remove copyright exceptions, or revoke licenses previously granted. Service access restrictions do not change those rights.

2.2 Contributions

By creating, editing, or submitting a Contribution, an Author represents, warrants, and agrees that:

(a) the Author licenses a Contribution to the public under the License when posting it to a publicly accessible page or authorizing its publication through the review process, and acknowledges that the license is irrevocable under its terms. Draft-namespace pages, talk pages, and public edit summaries are public even before editorial approval. Material stored solely in an access-restricted sandbox is not publicly licensed by storage alone. The Author grants the Operator a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free permission to store, reproduce, back up, format, and allow authorized reviewers to review that private material solely to operate the requested service; this does not authorize public disclosure before the Author authorizes publication, except as required by law;
(b) the Contribution is the Author's original work, or the Author otherwise holds all rights necessary to license it under the License, and the Contribution does not infringe, misappropriate, or violate the copyright, trademark, privacy, or other rights of any third party;
(c) any third-party material included in the Contribution is identified as such and is available under a license compatible with the License;
(d) Contributions that are published on the Site, together with their edit histories and the Author's username, may remain publicly visible, including in edit histories and third-party copies, and may be edited, reorganized, moved, or removed by the Operator's administrators at any time;
(e) subject to the License, the Author retains such copyright as the Author holds in the Contribution, and no Contribution creates any obligation on the part of the Operator to publish, retain, or credit it other than as the License requires; and
(f) the Contribution complies with Section 6.

2.3 Matters Not Licensed

(a) Third-party material that is marked with its own license, copyright notice, or terms remains subject to that license, notice, or terms.
(b) The names "WikiCyber" and "Shore-Roger Enterprises LLC," and all associated logos, are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. The License does not grant any trademark rights, and no such rights are granted by these Terms.

2.4 Linking to the Site

You may link to publicly accessible pages for lawful purposes, including attribution, commentary, and criticism. Do not misrepresent sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation or misuse trademarks. Nothing here limits fair use, nominative use, or rights granted by the License. Linking does not authorize access to private pages or circumvention of access controls.

3. Authors and Accounts

3.1 Invitation only. Author accounts are issued by invitation only. Competition Accounts may instead be issued through an approved competition registration window under Section 6.6.6. Authors are vetted before being invited and are expected to have a notable background in cybersecurity, whether as a cybersecurity professional or through a history of participation in capture-the-flag (CTF) competitions and cybersecurity camps. An invitation, and the holding of an account, are subject to the minimum-age requirements of Section 3.9, regardless of the background on which the Author was vetted.

3.2 Vetting is not a guarantee. The vetting of an Author does not constitute a representation or warranty by the Operator that any Author's Content is accurate, complete, current, or endorsed by the Operator. Content reflects the knowledge and opinions of the individual Authors.

3.3 Account security. Each Author is solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their account credentials, for activity they authorize or that results from their failure to take reasonable care of their credentials, and for not permitting any other person to use their account. An Author is the sole authorized user of their account. An Author must notify the Operator promptly upon becoming aware of, or reasonably suspecting, any unauthorized use of their account or compromise of their credentials.

3.4 Editorial control and review. New or changed Content may be held in a draft or review queue before publication. The Operator may edit, move, decline to publish, or remove any Content at any time and for any reason, in its sole discretion.

3.5 No employment or agency. Unless the Operator and an Author have agreed otherwise in a signed writing, Authors contribute voluntarily and without compensation, and nothing in these Terms creates an employment, partnership, joint venture, or agency relationship between the Operator and any Author.

3.6 One account; accurate information. Unless the Operator agrees otherwise in writing, each Author may hold only one account. The Operator may deactivate any additional or duplicate account. An Author must provide accurate information to the Operator (including the email address associated with the account) and must keep that information current. Accounts are personal to the Author and may not be shared, sold, lent, or transferred.

3.7 Authors' representations. By accepting an account, an Author represents and warrants that: (a) the Author is not circumventing a current suspension or removal, and has disclosed any prior suspension or removal when seeking renewed access; (b) the Author has authority to accept these Terms, subject to the parental-consent procedure and nonwaivable rights in Section 3.9, and doing so does not breach any other agreement or obligation by which the Author is bound (including any agreement with an employer, school, or competition organizer concerning ownership of, or confidentiality of, work product); (c) every statement the Author makes to the Operator in connection with the Author's invitation or vetting is true; and (d) the Author satisfies the eligibility requirements of Section 6.5 (Export Controls and Sanctions) and will promptly notify the Operator if that ceases to be true.

3.8 Contributing on behalf of an organization. If an Author contributes to the Site in the course of employment or on behalf of a school, team, company, or other entity (an "Organization"), the Author represents that the Author is authorized to accept these Terms and to license the Contribution under the License on the Organization's behalf, and that the Organization agrees to be bound by these Terms. In that case, "you" refers to both the Author and the Organization, and the Organization is responsible to the Operator for any breach of these Terms by the Author in connection with that Contribution. An Author who is not so authorized must not submit the Contribution.

3.9 Minimum age.

(a) Use of the Site. You must be at least 13 years old to access or use the Site. If you are under 13, you must not use the Site, and you must not create an account, submit any Contribution, or provide any personal information to the Operator. The Site is not directed to children under 13, and the Operator does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
(b) Author accounts. You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, if higher) to hold an Author account, except that a person who is at least 13 but has not reached that required age may hold an Author account only if the Operator has received, directly from the person's parent or legal guardian and before the account is issued, written consent to the account and to these Terms, in a form the Operator accepts, together with enough information for the Operator to verify that the consent is genuine. The Operator may refuse to issue an account to any minor, and a vetting history or an invitation does not oblige the Operator to do so. The parent or legal guardian must separately accept these Terms in their own capacity and agree to supervise the minor's use; neither consent nor these Terms waives rights that a minor or guardian cannot lawfully waive. The parent or legal guardian may withdraw consent at any time by written notice to the Operator, upon which the Operator will deactivate the account.
(c) Representation and enforcement. By accessing the Site or accepting an account, you represent that you meet the requirements of this Section 3.9. An Author must tell the Operator promptly if they are not, or cease to be, eligible. If the Operator learns that a person under 13 has used the Site or provided personal information, or that an account was issued in breach of this Section, the Operator may immediately deactivate the account and will take reasonable steps to delete the personal information it holds about that person, subject to legally required retention and the limited, lawful retention described in Section 10.8. The Operator will handle published material and associated personal information consistently with applicable child-privacy and deletion requirements; the License is not a basis for refusing a legally required removal.
(d) Age-related blocks. The Operator may block an ineligible person's registration, account, or access to the affected services until they meet the applicable age and consent requirements, and may use the limited records described in Section 10.8 to help prevent repeat registrations and circumvention during the block. For example, a 17-year-old who does not have the required parental consent may receive a block of up to one year where the applicable account age is 18. The duration must reflect the applicable eligibility requirements and available age information. A person may request review under Section 7.6 if their age information is incorrect or they become eligible sooner, including through parental consent accepted under Section 3.9(b). Expiry or removal of an age-related block does not automatically issue or reactivate an account or remove a separate restriction imposed under these Terms.

3.10 Inactive accounts.

(a) Inactivity. An Author account is "inactive" if, for a continuous period of twelve (12) months, the account has neither been used to log in to the Site nor been used to make an edit or other contribution, as shown by the Operator's records.
(b) Deactivation. The Operator may deactivate an inactive account at any time. Before doing so, the Operator will make a reasonable effort to send a notice to the email address associated with the account, at least thirty (30) days in advance, but the Operator is not required to do so if the account has no working email address, and a failure of delivery does not prevent deactivation. Deactivation removes the Author's ability to log in and may include removing the Author's permissions, any reviewer or other role, and any open assignments.
(c) Deletion of personal data. After deactivation, the Operator may delete the email address and other non-public personal information associated with the account. Because of the License, the public edit history, and the need to attribute Authors, the Author's username, and Contributions that were already published, may remain on the Site, and the Operator may rename the account to a neutral name or remove the Contributions in its discretion.
(d) Reactivation. A former Author whose account was deactivated under this Section may ask the Operator to reactivate it. The Operator is not obliged to do so, and may require the Author to be re-vetted and to satisfy Sections 3.7, 3.9, and 6.5 again before granting the request.
(e) Security. The Operator may also deactivate, suspend, or limit any account at any time where it reasonably suspects that the account is compromised or at risk of misuse, in accordance with Section 7.

4. Educational Use Only; No Professional Advice

4.1 Educational purpose. WikiCyber is not a source of expert help. The Site is a reference work, similar in style to an encyclopedia, intended solely for general educational purposes. Nothing on the Site constitutes professional, legal, security-consulting, or other individualized advice, and no attorney-client, consultant-client, or other professional relationship is created by your use of the Site.

4.2 No assurance of accuracy. Cybersecurity guidance is dependent on context, and the techniques described on the Site may alter, disable, or damage systems and data. Content may be incomplete, out of date, or incorrect. Before applying any Content, you should practice in an isolated laboratory or virtual machine, maintain backups, and verify the information against authoritative sources.

4.3 Assumption of risk and responsibility. You use the Site and the Content entirely at your own risk. You are solely responsible for (a) obtaining all authorizations necessary before testing, configuring, or otherwise acting upon any system, network, or data, and (b) ensuring that your use of the Content complies with all applicable laws, regulations, and agreements.

5. No Affiliation; Third-Party Marks

5.1 Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. WikiCyber is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or representative of Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation, and does not claim otherwise. The Site runs on MediaWiki, free and open-source software that is used by many unrelated organizations, and the use of that software implies no affiliation of any kind.

5.2 Other organizations. WikiCyber is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CyberPatriot, the Air & Space Forces Association, Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corporation, or any other organization, product, service, or competition that may be mentioned on the Site.

5.3 Third-party marks. All third-party names, trademarks, and logos are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification and educational reference only.

6. Acceptable Use

The following rules govern use of the service and submission of material. They do not add conditions to the License or prohibit lawful criticism, consumer reviews, reports to regulators, or other legally protected activity. Cybersecurity knowledge may be used either to defend systems or to attack them. You are fully responsible for your own conduct on and in connection with the Site. You may use the Site only for lawful and ethical purposes, in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, with this Section 6, and with any editorial policies, help pages, or reasonable instructions the Operator publishes on the Site from time to time. If you use any third-party service in connection with the Site, you must also comply with that service's terms.

Prohibited uses of the Site and its Content. You shall not use the Site, or any information obtained from it, to:

(a) access, probe, attack, disrupt, or damage any computer system, network, account, or data without the explicit permission of its owner;
(b) commit, or assist any person in committing, any crime or other unlawful act, including fraud, identity theft, stalking, unauthorized surveillance, or theft of data;
(c) create, host, or distribute malware or other harmful code for malicious use, or post, embed, upload, host, or link to any Malicious Code (as defined in Section 6.4) in any form other than an Educational Sample that complies with Section 6.4.

Prohibited conduct on the Site. You shall not:

(d) attack, overload, abusively scrape, or attempt to circumvent the security or access controls of the Site;
(e) post the private information, credentials, or confidential material of any other person without that person's consent;
(f) post Content that infringes any person's intellectual property rights, or that is harassing, threatening, intimidating, stalking, obscene, hateful, deceptive, or spam;
(g) impersonate any person or misrepresent your qualifications or affiliation;
(h) post answers, keys, or non-public materials from an ongoing competition where the rules of that competition prohibit sharing them;
(i) discriminate against, or harass, any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, marital status, age, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law;
(j) use or attempt to use another person's account, or allow another person to use yours;
(k) interfere with, disrupt, damage, disable, or overburden the Site or its servers or networks, or impair any other person's use of the Site, including by abusing the review, request, or notification features;
(l) access or attempt to access any page, feature, account, or data that you are not authorized to access (including another Author's private sandbox pages), or tamper with, probe, or bypass any security measure, permission, or protection of the Site;
(m) use robots, crawlers, scrapers, or other automated means to access the Site except in a way that respects the Site's robots.txt file and any published rate limits or API guidelines, it being understood that nothing in this paragraph restricts your rights in the Content under the License;
(n) post Content that you know to be false or misleading, that contains viruses, corrupted data, or other harmful, disruptive, or destructive files or code (other than Educational Samples that comply with Section 6.4), or that contains political campaigning, advertising, or solicitation; or
(o) engage in, encourage, or promote any activity that violates these Terms or the rights of the Operator or any third party.

6.1.1 Promotional links are prohibited on articles, drafts, and all other pages of the Site, except as provided in Section 6.1.2. A "promotional link" includes any link to your own or any other person's website, blog, video channel, store, newsletter, or social media profile; any donation, sponsorship, or "buy me a coffee" page; and any affiliate, referral, or advertising link.

6.1.2 Promotional links are permitted only on an Author's own user profile page (the page titled "User:" followed by the Author's username). Promotional links are not permitted on articles, on drafts or sandbox pages submitted for review, on talk pages, or on any other page. An Author must remove all promotional links from a draft before submitting it for review.

6.1.3 A link that serves as a genuine source for a statement of fact, cited in accordance with the Site's sourcing policy (for example, a link to official documentation), is not a promotional link. However, the Operator's reviewers may remove any link whose primary purpose is promotional, and the Operator may remove promotional links and content at any time without notice. Repeated violations of this Section 6.1 may result in the loss of Author access under Section 7.

6.2 Reasonable File Sizes

Whenever the Site permits the upload or embedding of images or other files, an Author must keep each file reasonably sized for its purpose. For example, an image that shows only a small diagram or arrow must not be uploaded as a multi-megapixel or 4K image. An Author must resize, crop, or compress files before uploading them, and must not upload files that are larger than needed to serve their educational purpose. The Operator may set maximum file sizes and dimensions, and may resize, replace, or remove any file that is unreasonably large, without notice.

6.3 Responsible Disclosure

If you discover a security vulnerability affecting the Site, you are requested to report it promptly to the contact address in Section 13 and not to exploit it, disclose it publicly before the Operator has had a reasonable opportunity to remediate it, or access data that is not your own.

6.4 Malicious Code and Educational Samples

6.4.1 Rule and definition. "Malicious Code" means any software, script, macro, document, shellcode, payload, or other code that is designed or configured for malicious damage, disruption, or unauthorized access to a computer system, network, account, or data, including malware, ransomware, spyware, malicious backdoors, worms, credential stealers, and working exploit payloads. Ordinary administrative commands and defensive tools are not Malicious Code solely because they could be misused. The public-posting restrictions do not prohibit tools expressly supplied or authorized for an isolated Terminal Service exercise within its stated scope; they do not authorize publishing or exporting those tools. You may not post, embed, upload, host, or link to Malicious Code on the Site, except as an Educational Sample that complies with every requirement of this Section 6.4. Section 6(c) and this Section 6.4 are to be read together: nothing in this Section 6.4 permits any use that Section 6 otherwise prohibits.

6.4.2 Educational Sample. An "Educational Sample" is an excerpt or illustration of Malicious Code that satisfies all of the following:

(a) it is included solely to explain how an attack works or to help readers detect, analyze, mitigate, or defend against it;
(b) it is clearly labeled, immediately above the sample, with a visible notice stating that it is a defanged educational sample;
(c) it is Defanged as required by Section 6.4.3;
(d) it is no longer than is reasonably necessary for its educational purpose, and is accompanied by explanatory text, including how the technique can be detected or prevented; and
(e) it does not exploit a vulnerability for which no vendor fix, patch, or mitigation has been publicly released.

6.4.3 Defanged. Code is "Defanged" only if all of the following are true:

(a) it appears solely as human-readable text inline in the page (for example, in a code block), and not as a file, archive, attachment, download, or embedded object;
(b) it is not compiled, packed, obfuscated, or encoded (for example, as an executable, library, installer, script bundle, or an encoded blob such as Base64 or hexadecimal data), and it does not contain raw shellcode or any other byte sequence that would run, or decode into something that would run, if copied;
(c) it is incomplete in a way that prevents it from working as written against a real system, because it omits at least one element essential to its operation (such as a functional payload, a final stage, a working key, or target-specific values), and no reader can make it function without writing that element themselves; and
(d) every network address, hostname, URL, credential, and other target or infrastructure value in it is an inert placeholder, such as the loopback address 127.0.0.1 (or ::1), an address in the documentation ranges 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, or 203.0.113.0/24 (or 2001:db8::/32), a reserved name such as example.com, example.net, or example.org, or a name ending in .test, .example, or .invalid, and none identifies a real person, organization, system, or account.

6.4.4 No hosting or linking. Public wiki pages and public downloads must not host executable, compiled, or otherwise runnable Malicious Code, and you may not upload or attempt to upload any such file. You may not post a link to any page, repository, or file from which live malware or a working exploit can be downloaded. Links to published analysis, advisories, and documentation (for example, a vendor advisory or a CVE record) that do not themselves distribute working Malicious Code are permitted. An indicator of compromise taken from real malware (for example, an address or domain) may be shown only in defanged notation (for example, "hxxp" for "http" and "[.]" for ".") and with a cited source.

6.4.5 Review, removal, and responsibility. The Operator and its reviewers determine in their sole discretion whether Content is an Educational Sample, and may reject, redact, or remove any Content that does not clearly meet this Section 6.4, without notice. Labeling Content as an educational sample does not make it one. You must not complete, restore, recompile, decode, or otherwise re-weaponize any Educational Sample, and you may run or test such material only on systems that you own or are expressly authorized in writing to test, in accordance with Section 6(a). Compliance with this Section 6.4 is a minimum requirement and does not make any use lawful. You remain solely responsible for your own conduct.

6.5 Export Controls and Sanctions

6.5.1 Compliance with export laws. The Site and its Content include technical information about computer security, cryptography, and attack and defense techniques that may be subject to United States export control and sanctions laws, including the Export Administration Regulations (15 C.F.R. Parts 730–774) and the economic sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (together, "Export Laws"). You may not access, use, download, or export, re-export, or transfer the Site or any Content in violation of Export Laws or any other applicable export, import, or sanctions law. You are solely responsible for determining whether your own access to, use of, or transfer of Content is lawful where you are located and under the laws that apply to you.

6.5.2 Restricted transactions. You must not use an account, receive a service, or submit or transfer material where that particular transaction is prohibited by applicable Export Laws, including applicable sanctions, restricted-party rules, and ownership rules. Restrictions depend on the person, destination, material, and transaction; an exemption, exception, or license may apply. A country's appearance in a sanctions program, or a person's appearance on a restricted-party list, does not by itself mean every transaction is prohibited. The Operator may request information reasonably needed to assess eligibility and may withhold a restricted service pending verification. You must not misrepresent your identity or location to evade a restriction.

6.5.3 Authors and technical contributions. An account or Contribution must not be provided or accepted when doing so is prohibited under Section 6.5.2. The Operator retains responsibility for its own compliance obligations; a user representation does not replace them. The Operator may decline, suspend, or revoke any account, and may remove any Contribution, where the Operator believes, in its sole discretion, that holding the account or accepting the Contribution would or might violate Export Laws. An Author must not use a proxy, VPN, third-party account, or any other means to conceal their location or identity in order to circumvent this Section 6.5.

6.5.4 No representation of exportability. The Operator makes no representation that the Content is appropriate or available for use or export in any location, and does not provide an export classification for any Content. The Operator may restrict or block access to the Site, or to any part of it, from any location as it considers necessary to comply with law, without notice or liability.

6.6 Terminal Service and Competitions

6.6.1 Optional; may be limited. The Terminal Service is optional, is offered only to the accounts and groups the Operator chooses, and may be limited, queued, rescheduled, paused, or withdrawn at any time. Practice sessions are limited in number, length, and resources; a Competition may be limited to a booked time slot, a fixed number of attempts, and a fixed length of play. Access depends on a confirmed email address and on your acceptance of the version of these Terms that is shown to you.

6.6.2 Monitored, temporary environment. Your virtual machine is provided only for the assigned exercise. Session access can end, and working data can be lost, without warning; no backup, recovery, or continued access is promised. Ending a session does not necessarily erase its disk, logs, evidence, or backups immediately. Collection and retention are described in Sections 10.6 and 10.7. Do not enter real passwords, secrets, personal or financial information, or third-party account credentials. Use only the exercise credentials supplied for the exercise. Before starting, you must receive notice of and affirmatively agree to the disclosed console recording and environment inspection. Decline the Terminal Service if you do not agree. This agreement does not authorize monitoring beyond what applicable law permits.

6.6.3 Permitted use. You may use the Terminal Service only to carry out the exercise presented to you, against the systems the exercise provides. In addition to Section 6, you may not: (a) attempt to attack, scan, probe, or gain access to the host machine, the hypervisor, the network, other participants' environments, the Operator's other systems, or any third-party system, or attempt to escape or weaken the isolation of your environment; (b) use the environment for cryptocurrency mining, for relaying or generating traffic, for sending spam, for hosting services, or for any other purpose unrelated to the exercise; (c) attempt to exhaust or evade the limits on time, resources, attempts, or traffic, including by opening several sessions, using several accounts, or sharing an account; (d) interfere with the recording, scoring, or review of an attempt; or (e) use any network access that a practice session may provide for anything except the purpose the Operator has stated for it. Competitions never have outside network access. The Operator may end any session at any time, and may do so without warning if it believes this Section has been breached or the host is at risk.

6.6.4 Competition integrity. In a Competition you must work alone and without help unless the rules of that Competition expressly allow otherwise. You may not receive, give, buy, sell, or publish answers, flags, solutions, hints, or the contents of an environment, before, during, or after a Competition, other than as the rules permit; you may not use another person's account or let another person use yours; and you may not use automated tools, scripts, or artificial-intelligence assistance beyond what the rules allow. The Operator may disqualify an attempt, remove a score, or exclude a person from Competitions where it reasonably determines that a rule was breached. A participant may request review under Section 7.6. These rules do not restrict lawful reports of misconduct, protected disclosures, or rights independently granted by an applicable open license.

6.6.5 Booking, attempts, and results. Booking a Competition slot does not guarantee that the Competition will take place; the Operator may cancel or reschedule a slot or a Competition. A booked slot that is not used within the time allowed is forfeited. An attempt starts when the environment starts and its clock keeps running if you disconnect or your connection fails. An attempt that fails to start because of a fault on the Operator's side may be refunded as an attempt at the Operator's discretion, and an attempt that fails for any other reason counts. Scores are set automatically by the Operator's scoring system and are provisional. Results are normally hidden from participants until the Operator has reviewed them and published them, and the Operator may correct errors, invalidate compromised attempts, and revise rankings. Administrative decisions are subject to Section 7.6 and do not remove legal remedies. Where results are published, a leaderboard may show your Site username and score, as described in Section 10.7.

6.6.6 Competition Accounts. A Competition Account may be used only to take part in Competitions, does not carry any right to edit the Site, and may be deactivated after the Competition for which it was issued ends, unless the holder has meanwhile become an Author. The rules in Sections 3.3, 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, 3.10, and 13.4 and Section 6.5 apply to Competition Accounts as they apply to Author accounts, and you may hold only one account.

6.6.7 Exercises are for education only. The exercises and the techniques shown in them are for learning in the environment provided. Sections 4 and 6(a) apply: you must not apply them to a system that you do not own or are not authorized in writing to test.

6.6.8 Event rules. Before booking or entry, the Operator will make available the applicable eligibility, dates and time zone, permitted assistance and tools, attempt and time limits, start and missed-slot rules, scoring and tie-breaking method, any overtime penalties, publication arrangements, and review procedure. Hidden scoring details and answers need not be disclosed. There is no entry fee or prize unless separately announced in rules accepted before entry; any such event requires separate applicable terms. Material changes after entry will be communicated to affected participants, with an opportunity to withdraw; the Operator may make necessary security or integrity changes and explain their effect on attempts and results. No Competition represents an accredited examination or professional certification.

7. Enforcement and Termination

7.1 Remedies. If the Operator reasonably believes you have violated these Terms or that action is necessary to protect the service or others, the Operator may, at any time and without prior notice: (a) remove, edit, or restrict access to any Content; (b) suspend (temporarily or indefinitely) or permanently revoke your account or your access to the Site; (c) cooperate with law enforcement and other governmental authorities; and (d) take any other action permitted by law or in equity.

7.2 Unlawful use. Use of the Site to gain unauthorized access to any system, to commit any crime, or for any other unlawful purpose is prohibited and may result in legal action.

7.3 Legal process. The Operator may disclose information about you or your use of the Site where it believes in good faith that disclosure is required by law, legal process, or governmental request, or is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Operator, the Site, or others.

7.4 Termination by you; effect of termination. You may stop using the Site at any time. Upon suspension or termination of your access for any reason, your right to use the Site ceases immediately. Termination does not revoke, and does not entitle you to the removal of, any license granted or Contribution made under Section 2.

7.5 No liability. Any limitation of liability for enforcement action is subject to Section 11, including its exceptions. This Section does not excuse unlawful action.

7.6 Review requests. You may request review of an account restriction, disqualification, or scoring decision by emailing Section 13.1 with your username, the affected decision or attempt, and the reasons for your request, ordinarily within 30 days after notice. The Operator will consider timely requests in good faith and communicate the outcome, using a reviewer not involved in the original decision where practicable. Security-sensitive evidence, personal information about others, and hidden scoring details need not be disclosed. Restrictions may remain during review. This process does not shorten a legal limitation period or prevent you from exercising legal rights.

8.1 Notice of claimed infringement. The Operator respects intellectual property rights and responds to notices of alleged copyright infringement in accordance with applicable law, including Title 17, United States Code, Section 512. If you believe that Content on the Site infringes a copyright that you own or control, you may submit a written notice to the contact address in Section 13 that includes:

(a) your physical or electronic signature, or that of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
(b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
(c) identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with the URL of the page on which it appears, in sufficient detail to permit the Operator to locate it;
(d) your name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address;
(e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
(f) a statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right allegedly infringed.

8.2 Action upon notice. Upon receipt of a notice that substantially complies with Section 8.1, the Operator will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the identified material as required by applicable law and will take reasonable steps promptly to notify the affected Author. Notices and counter-notices, including contact details, may be shared with the other party as necessary to administer this process.

8.3 Counter-notification. An Author whose Content has been removed pursuant to Section 8.2 may submit a written counter-notice to the contact address in Section 13 that includes: (a) the Author's physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the material removed and the location at which it appeared before removal; (c) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the Author has a good-faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; and (d) the Author's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the Author consents to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which the Author's address is located (or, if the address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which the Operator may be found) and will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice or their agent. For the statutory counter-notice process, the Operator will promptly forward a compliant counter-notice to the complaining party and inform that party that the material will be restored in 10 business days. The Operator will restore access no earlier than 10 and no later than 14 business days after receipt unless its designated agent first receives notice that the complaining party has filed an action seeking a court order restraining the allegedly infringing activity. Material may remain unavailable for an independent, lawful reason under these Terms, which will be communicated to the Author.

8.4 Repeat infringers. In appropriate circumstances, the Operator will suspend or terminate the accounts of Authors who are repeat infringers of copyright.

8.5 Misrepresentation. You may be held liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, if you knowingly and materially misrepresent that material is infringing or was removed by mistake or misidentification.

9. Links and Third-Party Content

The Site may contain links to, or reproduce content from, websites, services, and materials that are owned or operated by third parties. Such materials include links to external web pages, tools, repositories, videos, downloads (including practice images and files), and any other service mentioned on the Site (collectively, "Third-Party Materials"). Third parties are responsible for their own materials and services. Except for materials the Operator itself creates or expressly adopts, the Operator does not control, update, or endorse Third-Party Materials, makes no guarantee that they are accurate, complete, current, safe, or lawful, and assumes no responsibility for their content, availability, security, or privacy practices. Downloaded files in particular may contain malware or be unsuitable for your systems; you should open them only in an isolated environment. Your correspondence or dealings with, or participation in promotions of, any third party found on or through the Site are solely between you and that third party. You decide whether to access or use Third-Party Materials, you do so at your own risk, and your use is governed by the terms and policies of that third party.

10. Privacy

10.1 Information collected. The Operator collects and uses limited information, such as usernames, email addresses associated with accounts, and server logs, for the purposes of operating, maintaining, and securing the Site. If you use the Terminal Service, the Operator also collects and uses the additional information described in Sections 10.6 and 10.7. Limited information retained to enforce age-related blocks is described in Section 10.8.

10.2 Public nature of Contributions. All Contributions that are published on the Site, including the Author's username and edit history, are public and are not confidential.

10.3 Service providers. Some of the services that operate the Site, including hosting infrastructure, are provided by Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Linode). Server logs and other data described in Section 10.1 may be stored and processed on that provider's infrastructure. The Terminal Service runs on a separate server hosted by DigitalOcean, LLC, and the data described in Section 10.6 is stored and processed there. The Operator also keeps encrypted backups of that server's state in a private code repository that it operates itself, and a second, off-site copy of its security audit records on the Linode server. Email delivery also involves the Operator's email service provider, currently Google Workspace. The Operator does not sell personal information. The Privacy policy must identify applicable processing purposes, service-provider categories, and retention practices; naming providers here does not limit legally required disclosures.

10.4 Children. The Site is not intended for, and the Operator does not knowingly collect personal information from, children under 13 (see Section 3.9). A parent or legal guardian who believes that a child under 13 has provided personal information to the Operator may contact the Operator at the address in Section 13.1, and the Operator will promptly investigate and delete information as required by applicable law, retaining it only where legally permitted and necessary.

10.5 Privacy policy and private material. The Privacy policy describes data practices and applicable privacy rights; it is not a blanket consent to all processing. Where separate consent is required, the Operator must obtain it. Private sandbox pages are access-restricted, but authorized administrators and reviewers may access them for operation, review, security, or legal compliance. Draft-namespace pages and public edit metadata are not private. Do not submit secrets. A privacy request is governed by applicable law, not solely by the Operator's discretion.

10.6 Terminal Service: what is collected. If you use the Terminal Service, the following is recorded and should be treated as visible to the Operator:

(a) Account and eligibility. Your wiki account identifier and username, whether your email address is confirmed, whether you have accepted the applicable version of these Terms, and your eligibility to use the Terminal Service or a Competition. The Site sends these to the Terminal Service host in signed requests, together with the Internet address your request came from.
(b) Session records. When each session or attempt is requested, queued, started, and ended; how it ended; its length; the environment and Competition it belonged to; limits you reached; and refused or invalid requests. The Operator keeps these in tamper-evident audit logs, and a copy of those logs is sent to a second server to help preserve evidence of tampering. These safeguards do not guarantee that records cannot be altered or lost. These logs identify you by your account identifier and may include your Internet address.
(c) Console activity. Everything that passes through the terminal, in both directions, is visible to the Operator while the session runs, and the host keeps a log of the virtual machine's console. Because a console normally displays what you type, the console log can contain the commands you type, the output you see, and anything you paste or type into the terminal, including anything you should not have entered. Do not type or paste anything into the terminal that you are not willing for the Operator to see. The Operator does not use the console log for advertising and does not read it routinely; it uses it to run the service, to investigate abuse, faults, and suspected cheating, and to review and score attempts.
(d) Environment contents. At the end of an attempt the Operator takes a copy of the contents of the virtual machine's disk, the files you changed or created, and the answers you typed into the environment, so that the attempt can be scored and reviewed. Practice scoring copies are ordinarily deleted after scoring; fault investigation, security incidents, or legal preservation may require longer retention. Competition evidence may be retained for review and disputes. Ending access does not guarantee immediate erasure of working disks, console logs, or backups. Retention remains subject to Section 10.7 and applicable law.
(e) Scoring, booking, and results. Your bookings, slots, missed slots, attempts, the score and the individual scoring checks for each attempt, the Operator's review decision, and the leaderboard. Scoring is automatic and rule-based; a person may review it.
(f) Network use. A practice session that has been given outside network access sends its traffic through a filtering proxy that records each connection it allows or refuses (the environment, the destination, the time, and the amount of data), but not the content of encrypted traffic. Competitions never have network access.
(g) Email. Emails about booking, queueing, or results that the Operator sends to your account's email address.
(h) Browser information. A necessary, secure session cookie that connects your browser to your one terminal session that expires according to its configured lifetime or is cleared on logout or explicit termination. Closing the browser or losing a connection need not immediately remove the cookie. The Operator does not use advertising or analytics cookies in the Terminal Service.

10.7 Terminal Service: use, sharing, and retention. The Operator uses the information in Section 10.6 to provide and secure the Terminal Service, to schedule, score, review, and publish Competitions, to prevent and investigate abuse and cheating, to keep the service running, and to meet legal obligations. The Operator shares it with service providers supporting the purposes described here and in the Privacy policy, including those identified in Section 10.3, with persons who run or review a Competition for the Operator, as required under Section 7.3, and, in the case of a leaderboard or published result, with the public as described below. Where results are published, your Site username, score, and rank may be shown to anyone who can see the page. Usernames on the Site are public (Section 10.2), so you should not use a username that you do not want connected to a published result. The Operator keeps the information in Section 10.6 for as long as it reasonably needs it for these purposes and for a Competition's review and dispute period, and may keep audit records, bookings, and published results for longer where the integrity of a Competition, the security of the Terminal Service, or the law requires. Retention must be limited to what is reasonably necessary and legally permitted, with deletion or de-identification when no longer needed; backup copies may persist until their scheduled rotation. The Privacy policy must state applicable retention periods or the criteria used to determine them. You may ask the Operator, at the address in Section 13.1, to access or delete information about you in the Terminal Service, and it will respond in accordance with applicable law, including any identity-verification requirements, response deadlines, and lawful exceptions. Published results and usernames may be removed or de-identified where required. Competition integrity alone does not override a statutory deletion right. The Terminal Service is not designed for the entry of sensitive personal information.

10.8 Limited records for age-related blocks.

(a) Information and purpose. Where permitted by applicable law, when a person is blocked under Section 3.9, the Operator may retain the minimum information reasonably necessary to set, enforce, and review the block and help prevent that person from registering again or obtaining access to the affected Site services while ineligible. These records may include IP addresses, email addresses, usernames, reported age and the date it was reported, and the block's reason, start date, and expiry or review date. Retention of these limited records may continue after account deactivation or deletion of other account information; it does not authorize retaining the entire account or unrelated activity records for this purpose.
(b) Duration. Records retained solely for an age-related block will be kept only as long as reasonably necessary to enforce or review that block, ordinarily until it expires or is lifted, and will then be securely deleted or irreversibly de-identified. Any longer retention must have a separate, lawful and necessary basis, such as a legal preservation obligation, and last only as long as that basis requires. The Operator will review retention when eligibility or the block changes. The Privacy policy must describe the applicable retention periods or criteria.
(c) Safeguards and requests. These records are used for eligibility and block enforcement, review, and related legal compliance, not advertising or marketing. Access is restricted to authorized personnel and service providers who need it for those purposes. A shared or reassigned IP address is not, by itself, conclusive evidence that two registrations belong to the same person. A person or their parent or legal guardian may contact Section 13.1 to request correction, review, access, or deletion, subject to applicable law and appropriate identity verification.
(d) Children under 13. Sections 3.9(c) and 10.4 continue to apply. Information about a child under 13 may be retained only to the extent specifically permitted by applicable child-privacy law and reasonably necessary for a permitted purpose, with any required parental notice and consent. This Section does not itself supply consent or a legal exception, and preventing re-registration does not override a legal requirement to delete information.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability

11.1 Disclaimer of warranties. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT, INCLUDING TERMINAL ENVIRONMENTS AND COMPETITIONS, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE OPERATOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR THE CONTENT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

11.2 Exclusion of damages. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL ANY OF THE WIKICYBER PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, OR SYSTEM AVAILABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS, THE SITE, OR THE CONTENT, OR YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE OR THE CONTENT, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

11.3 Limitation of aggregate liability. BECAUSE THE SITE IS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE WIKICYBER PARTIES FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE SITE, OR THE CONTENT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF TEN U.S. DOLLARS (US$10) OR THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID THE OPERATOR FOR THE AFFECTED SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, SUBJECT TO SECTION 11.4.

11.4 Exceptions. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including nonwaivable statutory remedies. No disclaimer, indemnity, assumption of risk, enforcement provision, or dispute clause overrides those protections. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages, and in those jurisdictions the exclusions and limitations in this Section 11 apply only to the fullest extent permitted.

11.5 Basis of the bargain. You acknowledge that the disclaimers and limitations in this Section 11 reflect a reasonable allocation of risk, that the Site is provided free of charge in reliance on them, and that they apply even if any limited remedy fails of its essential purpose.

11.6 Terminal risks. Training images may be intentionally vulnerable or misconfigured. No warranty is made about session continuity, isolation against every possible attack, scoring accuracy, preservation of work, or suitability for an external exam or certification. Do not deploy training images as production systems or expose them to other networks. These cautions do not expand your authorized testing scope or diminish Section 11.4.

12. Indemnification

12.1 Indemnity. To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify the WikiCyber Parties against third-party claims and reasonable resulting losses and legal costs to the extent caused by your unlawful conduct, infringement of third-party rights, or material breach of these Terms. This does not apply to claims caused by a WikiCyber Party's own negligence, misconduct, or violation of law, or require reimbursement for your good-faith assertion of rights against the Operator. No minor or consumer assumes obligations that applicable law prohibits.

12.2 Procedure. The Operator will promptly notify you of a claim and take reasonable steps to mitigate loss. Late notice relieves you of liability to the extent it materially prejudices your defense. You may control the defense using reasonably qualified counsel acceptable to the Operator; the Operator may participate at its own expense. If you fail to provide a reasonable defense, the Operator may defend and seek only reasonable, necessary costs otherwise covered by Section 12.1. Neither party may settle a covered claim in a way that admits fault, imposes nonmonetary obligations, or fails to release the other without that other's consent, not unreasonably withheld.

13. Contact and Notices

13.1 Contact. Questions regarding these Terms, notices of claimed copyright infringement and counter-notices under Section 8, and reports under Section 6.3 should be directed to: admin@wikicyber.org.

13.2 Notices to you. The Operator may provide notices to you by posting them on the Site or by sending them to the email address associated with your account, if any. Material changes are governed by Section 14. Posting or sending a notice does not establish acceptance or waive any legally required notice, receipt, or service-of-process procedure.

13.3 Electronic communications. You consent to receive communications from the Operator in electronic form and agree that electronic communications may satisfy writing requirements to the extent permitted by applicable law; any additional legally required consent or delivery procedure still applies.

13.4 Account and service emails; no marketing. By accepting an account, an Author agrees that the Operator may send email to the address associated with the account for purposes related to the Site, such as account and security messages, password resets, editorial review and draft-status notices, terminal queue and competition booking or results messages where offered, notices of changes to these Terms or the Supplemental Policies, and responses to your inquiries. The Operator does not send advertising or marketing messages and does not contact you by telephone or text message. Some categories of email (such as review notifications) may be switched off in your preferences; notices about these Terms, legal notices, and security messages may be sent regardless. You represent that you own or are authorized to use the email address you give the Operator.

14. Modifications to These Terms

The Operator may revise these Terms prospectively. A revised version will state its effective date and be available for review. For material changes, the Operator will provide reasonable advance notice through the Site and, for affected account holders, their account email where available, ordinarily at least 30 days before effectiveness. Changes necessary for law, security, or abuse prevention may take effect sooner to the extent necessary, with notice as soon as practicable. Account holders must affirmatively accept material contractual changes before using the affected account features after effectiveness; publication or silence alone is not acceptance. A user who declines may stop using the affected features and request account closure. Changes do not retroactively alter accrued claims, revoke granted licenses, or override prior arbitration opt-outs. Changes to dispute resolution also require the protections in Section 15.15. Prior published versions remain available through page history.

15. Governing Law and General Provisions

15.1 Governing law. These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to the Site, are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, except that mandatory protections of your place of residence continue to apply where they cannot lawfully be displaced.

15.2 Jurisdiction and venue. Subject to Sections 15.3 and 15.12 through 15.15, you irrevocably consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in the State of California for any such dispute, except where mandatory law entitles you to a different forum. This provision does not prevent qualifying small-claims proceedings under Section 15.12 or complaints to public authorities.

15.3 Provisional relief. Either party may request temporary or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction where necessary to preserve rights pending arbitration. This does not remove the merits of an otherwise arbitrable dispute from arbitration. Public injunctive relief is governed by Section 15.14.

15.4 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

15.5 No waiver. The failure of the Operator to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by the Operator to be effective.

15.6 Entire agreement; order of precedence. These Terms, together with the Supplemental Policies and, as to Content, the License, constitute the entire agreement between you and the Operator regarding the Site and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings on that subject. In the event of a conflict, (a) the License governs the rights granted in Content, and (b) mandatory law controls over all contractual terms. The Privacy policy governs descriptions of personal-data handling and does not diminish privacy rights. Event rules under Section 6.6.8 govern event mechanics but cannot change these Terms' liability, dispute-resolution, or privacy provisions. Otherwise these Terms control. An unpublished or unavailable policy is not incorporated by reference.

15.7 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights under them without the Operator's prior written consent, and any purported assignment in violation of this Section is void. The Operator may assign these Terms in connection with a genuine transfer or reorganization of the service if the successor assumes its obligations, subject to applicable law and notice of material changes in the handling of personal information. Assignment does not reduce your accrued rights.

15.8 Third-party beneficiaries. Except that the WikiCyber Parties are intended third-party beneficiaries of Sections 11 and 12, these Terms confer no rights on any person other than you and the Operator.

15.9 Force majeure. The Operator shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including failures of internet, hosting, or power services, labor disputes, natural disasters, governmental action, or attacks on the Site.

15.10 Geographic availability and age assurance. Availability of the Site does not mean every service is offered in every jurisdiction. The Operator may restrict features or locations where needed to comply with applicable law. Users must provide accurate eligibility information reasonably requested under Section 3.9, and must not evade geographic or age restrictions. These Terms do not disclaim applicable foreign law, transfer the Operator's compliance obligations to users, or replace age-assurance measures required by law. Any collection of verification information requires appropriate notice and safeguards.

15.11 Survival. Sections that by their nature should survive the termination of your access to the Site shall so survive, including Sections 2, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9(c), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15, but only to the extent relevant to accrued rights and obligations or continuing lawful retention. Survival does not require indefinite data retention.

15.12 Informal resolution and binding arbitration.

(a) Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration, a party must send the other a written notice describing the dispute and the relief sought (to the Operator, at the address in Section 13.1; to you, at the email address associated with your account), and the parties will try in good faith to resolve it informally for at least thirty (30) days after the notice is received. Applicable limitation periods are tolled during that period to the extent permitted by law. Neither party must delay an urgent protective filing, a qualifying small-claims case, or a complaint to a regulator. Participation does not require disclosing privileged information.
(b) Agreement to arbitrate. If you affirmatively accepted this arbitration agreement and a dispute is not resolved within that period, then, except as provided in Section 15.12(e) and Section 15.15, you and the Operator agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Site, or the Content, whether based in contract, tort, statute, or otherwise, will be resolved exclusively by final and binding arbitration on an individual basis, and not in court before a judge or jury. This Section 15.12 is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.).
(c) Rules and administrator. The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules in effect when the arbitration is started, subject to applicable consumer due-process protections, which this Section does not reduce. The rules and filing instructions are available at https://www.adr.org. The Operator will comply with applicable AAA clause-review, registration, and business-fee requirements. If AAA declines administration because the Operator has not complied, you may elect court proceedings. If AAA is otherwise unavailable, the parties may agree on another administrator; absent agreement, either may proceed in court. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, in writing or by video or telephone conference, unless the arbitrator decides that an in-person hearing is necessary, in which case it will be held in the county where you live or another place that the parties agree on.
(d) Costs. Fees and costs will be allocated under the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules. If those rules would require you to pay more than you would have paid to file a lawsuit in the state court of the county where you live, the Operator will pay the excess. Each party bears its own attorneys' fees, except where applicable law or the arbitrator's authority under this Section permits an award of fees.
(e) Exceptions. Either party may (i) bring an individual claim in small claims court if the claim qualifies; (ii) seek injunctive or other equitable relief under Section 15.3; and (iii) bring a claim for public injunctive relief only in court, as provided in Section 15.14.
(f) Authority of the arbitrator. The arbitrator may award any individual relief that a court could award on the claims properly before the arbitrator, but may not award relief for or against anyone who is not a party. The arbitrator's decision is final, and a court having jurisdiction may enter judgment on it. A court decides contract formation, assent, and the validity, enforceability, and scope of this arbitration agreement, including Section 15.13; the arbitrator decides the merits of disputes properly referred to arbitration. Statutory remedies and judicial review available under applicable law remain available.

15.13 Individual arbitration; jury rights. Covered arbitrations proceed individually, not as a class or representative arbitration, unless both parties agree otherwise after a dispute arises. The arbitrator may not consolidate different persons' claims without their consent. If this limitation is unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim proceeds in court; other arbitrable claims remain in arbitration. This provision does not waive nonwaivable representative remedies, public injunctive relief, complaints to public authorities, or participation in government enforcement. Arbitration has no jury. These Terms do not separately waive a jury trial for claims that proceed in court, and do not prevent participation in a court-approved settlement.

15.14 Public injunctive relief. Nothing in this Section 15 waives any right to seek public injunctive relief that cannot lawfully be waived. If such a claim is pursued, it must be brought in court under Section 15.2, and any other claims will be arbitrated; the court determines whether any stay is appropriate under applicable law; no stay is required by these Terms where it would impair a nonwaivable remedy.

15.15 Opt-out; changes; severability of Section 15.12.

(a) Opt-out. You may opt out of Sections 15.12 and 15.13 by emailing the address in Section 13.1 within 30 days after you first affirmatively accept this version's arbitration agreement. State that you opt out and include your username, if any, and sufficient contact information to identify you. An account or access to its original email is not required; reasonable identity verification may be requested. Timely sending is sufficient. Opting out carries no penalty or loss of service and does not affect the other Terms. A prior valid opt-out remains effective. Court proceedings under Section 15.2 then apply.
(b) Changes. A material change to this dispute-resolution agreement requires advance notice under Section 14 and fresh affirmative acceptance, with a new 30-day opportunity to opt out. No change applies retroactively to an accrued claim or a dispute already notified to the other party unless both parties expressly agree after the dispute arises. Rejecting a change does not revoke a prior valid opt-out.
(c) Minors. To the extent that a person is a minor under applicable law, Sections 15.12 and 15.13 apply only to the extent permitted by that law.
(d) Severability. If part of this arbitration agreement is unenforceable, it is severed only if the remainder can lawfully operate consistently with the protections above. Sections 15.12(c) and 15.13 control administrator unavailability and unenforceable individual-arbitration restrictions. Severability cannot create assent or require arbitration where no enforceable agreement exists.
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