TERMS

Terms of Service

Last updated: August 3, 2026

Important notice

ProtocolGhost provides cybersecurity, software engineering, networking, cloud, privacy, and digital-forensics education for lawful and authorized use. Some material discusses dual-use techniques that can be used for legitimate defense, administration, investigation, and testing, but can also cause serious harm or violate criminal and civil law when used without permission.

You may use security-testing techniques only on systems, networks, applications, accounts, devices, environments, and data that you own or that you have clear, prior, and legally valid authorization to test. Access to ProtocolGhost content is not authorization to test any third-party system.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you ("you," "your," "user," "visitor," "customer," "student," or "learner") and Ohexion LLC, operating as ProtocolGhost ("ProtocolGhost," "we," "us," or "our").

These Terms govern your access to and use of protocolghost.com, its authorized subdomains, the Security in the Dark book series, articles, courses, educational laboratories, videos, livestreams, software, source code, downloadable files, community spaces, merchandise, consulting information, forms, and all related features, content, and services that link to these Terms (collectively, the "Services").

1. Acceptance of these Terms

By accessing or using the Services, creating an account, enrolling in a course, joining an official community space, downloading material, purchasing a product, submitting a form, or otherwise interacting with the Services, you confirm that:

  • You have read and understood these Terms;
  • You agree to be legally bound by these Terms;
  • You will comply with all laws and regulations that apply to you;
  • You have authority to enter into these Terms for yourself or for the organization you represent; and
  • Information you provide to ProtocolGhost will be accurate and not misleading.

These Terms incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Accessibility Statement, any posted community rules, and any product-specific or course-specific conditions presented before purchase or enrollment.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Services.

2. Eligibility and age requirements

You must be at least 16 years old to independently create an account, enroll in an interactive course, join an official ProtocolGhost community space, submit personal information, or otherwise use account-based portions of the Services.

ProtocolGhost does not knowingly permit independent account use by anyone under 16. A parent, legal guardian, school, employer, or other authorized adult may facilitate access for a younger learner only where permitted by law, where appropriate supervision is provided, and where the responsible adult accepts responsibility for the learner's conduct.

Some platforms linked from the Services may impose different minimum ages. You must satisfy the age requirements of Discord, Twitch, YouTube, Patreon, payment processors, storefronts, and any other third-party platform you use.

ProtocolGhost may restrict access to material that involves advanced offensive-security concepts, controlled laboratory activities, mature themes, or other content that is not suitable for all audiences.

3. Changes to the Services

ProtocolGhost is an evolving project. Features, pages, courses, downloads, community spaces, product offerings, prices, schedules, technical requirements, and availability may change.

We may add, modify, suspend, replace, or discontinue any part of the Services. Where practical, we will provide reasonable notice of a material change affecting an active paid course, active subscription, pending order, or purchased digital product.

We do not guarantee that every announced, previewed, planned, experimental, or future feature will be released. Roadmaps, previews, mockups, statements of intent, and project-status notices are informational and are not promises of delivery unless expressly stated in a separate written agreement.

4. Educational purpose

ProtocolGhost content is provided for general educational and informational purposes. It is intended to help learners understand technology, security engineering, software development, digital forensics, privacy, networking, cloud infrastructure, operational risk, and related subjects.

Educational content may include:

  • Demonstrations;
  • Example commands;
  • Source code;
  • Configuration files;
  • Simulated incidents;
  • Fictional companies and scenarios;
  • Laboratory exercises;
  • Security testing techniques;
  • Forensic acquisition and analysis concepts;
  • Threat-modeling methods;
  • Risk-management examples;
  • Certification-aligned learning material; and
  • Commentary about current technologies and practices.

Examples are designed to teach concepts. They may not account for every operating system version, tool release, cloud configuration, legal requirement, organizational policy, threat model, or production condition.

5. No professional, legal, financial, or compliance advice

Nothing in the Services constitutes:

  • Legal advice;
  • Financial or tax advice;
  • Insurance advice;
  • A formal security assessment;
  • A penetration-testing engagement;
  • A compliance audit;
  • An audit opinion;
  • A guarantee of regulatory compliance;
  • A forensic expert opinion;
  • Law-enforcement guidance;
  • Incident-response retainer services;
  • A substitute for professional engineering review; or
  • A recommendation tailored to your specific system or legal circumstances.

You should consult qualified legal counsel, security professionals, compliance specialists, forensic examiners, accountants, insurers, or other licensed or credentialed professionals when your situation requires professional judgment.

ProtocolGhost does not create an attorney-client, consultant-client, examiner-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship merely because you read, watch, purchase, download, or discuss ProtocolGhost content.

6. Your responsibility for technical decisions

You are responsible for deciding whether a command, script, configuration, tool, procedure, laboratory, or recommendation is suitable for your system.

Before applying technical material, you should:

  • Confirm that you have authorization;
  • Review the command or code;
  • Understand its effect;
  • Confirm that it applies to your operating system and version;
  • Back up important data;
  • Use a disposable laboratory when appropriate;
  • Protect credentials and confidential information;
  • Document the change;
  • Prepare a rollback plan; and
  • Verify the result.

You assume responsibility for commands or code that you run, even when they were copied from ProtocolGhost content.

7. Authorized and lawful use of security content

ProtocolGhost discusses offensive and defensive security techniques that may include scanning, enumeration, vulnerability analysis, exploitation, password auditing, traffic analysis, malware analysis, reverse engineering, social-engineering awareness, privilege escalation, persistence, lateral movement, forensic acquisition, log analysis, and incident response.

You agree to use these techniques only:

  • On systems and data you personally own;
  • In a disposable laboratory created for training;
  • In a capture-the-flag or training platform that expressly permits the activity;
  • Under a valid bug-bounty or vulnerability-disclosure program and within its published scope;
  • During an authorized professional engagement supported by written permission and clearly defined rules of engagement; or
  • In another context where you possess clear legal authority to perform the activity.

Authorization must come from a person or organization with authority to grant it. Permission from a user, employee, contractor, customer, tenant, or account holder may be insufficient when that person does not own or control the system.

Authorization should identify, as appropriate:

  • The systems and assets within scope;
  • The testing period;
  • Permitted techniques;
  • Prohibited techniques;
  • Data-handling requirements;
  • Emergency contacts;
  • Reporting requirements;
  • Third-party restrictions; and
  • Conditions that require testing to stop.

A publicly reachable system is not automatically authorized for testing. A missing warning banner is not permission. Curiosity, educational intent, good faith, or lack of harmful intent does not by itself create legal authorization.

8. No authorization from ProtocolGhost

ProtocolGhost cannot authorize you to test systems that ProtocolGhost does not own or control.

Access to the Services, possession of a book, course enrollment, community membership, a certificate of completion, a livestream demonstration, or a statement by another community member does not grant permission to access or test any third-party system.

Any example domain, address, account, credential, device, company, or target described in a fictional scenario is provided for narrative or instructional purposes. It must not be treated as a live testing target.

9. Prohibited conduct

You may not use the Services to engage in, assist, encourage, request, or facilitate conduct that is unlawful, abusive, deceptive, dangerous, or outside valid authorization.

Prohibited conduct includes:

  • Accessing or attempting to access a system, account, network, application, device, or dataset without authorization;
  • Exceeding the scope, duration, or conditions of an authorized engagement;
  • Disrupting, damaging, degrading, overloading, encrypting, deleting, or denying access to systems or data without authorization;
  • Deploying malware, ransomware, destructive code, credential stealers, botnets, unauthorized persistence, or covert remote-access tools;
  • Stealing, exposing, selling, publishing, or unlawfully retaining credentials, personal information, confidential data, trade secrets, or authentication tokens;
  • Conducting phishing, impersonation, social engineering, harassment, stalking, doxing, swatting, extortion, fraud, or identity theft;
  • Targeting critical infrastructure, medical systems, emergency services, public-safety systems, schools, government systems, or another sensitive environment without formal authority;
  • Developing or distributing material primarily intended to enable unauthorized harm;
  • Attempting to conceal unlawful conduct or evade accountability;
  • Interfering with another learner's laboratory, account, progress, or access;
  • Submitting malicious files, links, payloads, or code through forms or community spaces;
  • Circumventing authentication, payment, access-control, rate-limit, anti-spam, anti-automation, or security mechanisms protecting the Services;
  • Testing ProtocolGhost infrastructure without written authorization;
  • Scraping, harvesting, indexing, copying, or extracting content through unauthorized automated means;
  • Reselling, sharing, leaking, or redistributing restricted or paid content;
  • Misrepresenting your identity, qualifications, employer, authority, affiliation, certification, or completion status;
  • Uploading content that infringes intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, contractual, or other rights;
  • Using the Services to discriminate against, exploit, threaten, or target another person;
  • Attempting to bypass geographic, sanctions, export, or other legal restrictions; or
  • Using the Services in a manner that creates an unreasonable risk to ProtocolGhost, its infrastructure, its users, or a third party.

10. Responsible vulnerability disclosure

ProtocolGhost welcomes good-faith reports about suspected security weaknesses affecting infrastructure that ProtocolGhost owns and operates.

Unless ProtocolGhost publishes a separate vulnerability-disclosure policy, you must not assume that active security testing is authorized.

When reporting a suspected vulnerability:

  • Use the contact page or another security-reporting channel specifically published by ProtocolGhost;
  • Provide enough information to reproduce and understand the issue;
  • Avoid accessing data that is not yours;
  • Stop testing if you encounter personal, confidential, or restricted information;
  • Do not alter, delete, download, retain, or disclose third-party data;
  • Do not use denial-of-service techniques;
  • Do not use social engineering;
  • Do not establish persistence;
  • Do not demand payment or threaten disclosure;
  • Allow reasonable time for investigation and repair; and
  • Keep the matter confidential until ProtocolGhost authorizes disclosure or the parties agree on a disclosure plan.

Submitting a report does not guarantee payment, recognition, employment, a reward, or participation in a bug-bounty program.

11. Digital-forensics content disclaimer

Digital-forensics content may discuss evidence identification, preservation, acquisition, hashing, chain of custody, analysis, reporting, timelines, mobile artifacts, memory, storage, cloud data, network evidence, and legal-process concepts.

This material is educational. It does not:

  • Certify you as a forensic examiner;
  • Qualify you as an expert witness;
  • Establish that evidence will be admissible;
  • Replace jurisdiction-specific procedures;
  • Grant authority to seize, search, acquire, monitor, or analyze a device or account;
  • Guarantee that a method is forensically sound in every circumstance; or
  • Replace legal counsel or a qualified examiner.

Real investigations may involve warrants, subpoenas, consent requirements, employment policies, privacy rights, privilege, retention duties, litigation holds, contractual restrictions, evidentiary standards, and reporting obligations.

Consult appropriate counsel and qualified professionals before handling evidence connected to a criminal, civil, employment, disciplinary, regulatory, or insurance matter.

12. Laboratory safety and isolation

Laboratories should be performed only in environments designed for experimentation.

You are responsible for:

  • Isolating vulnerable systems from production environments;
  • Preventing unintended access to the public internet;
  • Preventing experimental traffic from reaching third parties;
  • Using disposable accounts, data, devices, and virtual machines when appropriate;
  • Protecting host systems and home or workplace networks;
  • Verifying snapshots and backups;
  • Following software-license requirements;
  • Avoiding the use of real credentials and real personal information;
  • Cleaning up temporary accounts, keys, firewall rules, services, and test data; and
  • Confirming that the laboratory is restored to a safe state.

ProtocolGhost is not responsible for laboratory traffic that escapes your environment or for damage caused by incorrect isolation.

13. Accounts and registration

Certain Services may require an account. You agree to provide accurate and current information and to update it when necessary.

You may not:

  • Create an account for another person without permission;
  • Impersonate another person or organization;
  • Use misleading account information;
  • Transfer or sell your account;
  • Share access where an offering is licensed to one user;
  • Create accounts to evade a suspension, ban, payment obligation, or access restriction; or
  • Use automated means to create accounts.

We may require verification before providing access to an account, course, download, community, or restricted feature.

14. Account security

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, email address, authentication methods, recovery codes, API keys, and devices.

You agree to:

  • Use a strong and unique password;
  • Enable multi-factor authentication where available;
  • Keep recovery information current;
  • Protect active sessions and access tokens;
  • Sign out from shared systems;
  • Notify ProtocolGhost promptly of suspected unauthorized access; and
  • Cooperate with reasonable account-security measures.

ProtocolGhost may temporarily restrict an account when we reasonably believe the account is compromised, being misused, or creating a security risk.

15. Community spaces

ProtocolGhost community spaces may be hosted through third-party platforms, including Discord, Twitch, YouTube, Patreon, GitHub, or other services.

Participation is subject to:

  • These Terms;
  • Posted ProtocolGhost community rules;
  • Moderator instructions;
  • The third-party platform's terms and policies; and
  • Applicable law.

Community participation is a privilege, not an entitlement. ProtocolGhost may remove content, restrict features, mute users, remove members, suspend access, or permanently ban users when reasonably necessary to protect the community or enforce these Terms.

Moderation decisions may consider conduct that occurs outside an official ProtocolGhost space when that conduct presents a credible safety, fraud, harassment, impersonation, or security risk to ProtocolGhost or its community.

16. Community safety

You must treat other participants with respect. You may disagree with ideas, methods, interpretations, or technical decisions, but you may not target people with abuse or intimidation.

Community spaces may not be used for:

  • Harassment or threats;
  • Doxing or unauthorized disclosure of personal information;
  • Hate-based abuse;
  • Sexual harassment;
  • Stalking;
  • Fraud or impersonation;
  • Unsolicited commercial promotion;
  • Malicious files or links;
  • Requests for unauthorized intrusion;
  • Sale or exchange of stolen data, credentials, access, or malicious services;
  • Publication of another person's private communications without authorization; or
  • Attempts to evade moderation.

Never post real credentials, private keys, authentication tokens, session cookies, personal records, customer data, protected health information, financial records, confidential evidence, or other sensitive material in a public community channel.

17. User content

"User Content" means material you submit, post, transmit, upload, share, or otherwise make available through an interactive portion of the Services. It may include questions, comments, code, screenshots, write-ups, reviews, suggestions, files, images, messages, and project examples.

You retain ownership of rights you already hold in your User Content.

By submitting User Content through the Services, you grant ProtocolGhost a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, display, transmit, moderate, and otherwise use that content only as reasonably necessary to:

  • Operate the Services;
  • Display the content where you submitted it;
  • Provide technical support;
  • Protect users and enforce these Terms;
  • Investigate abuse or security incidents; and
  • Promote a public contribution when you clearly submitted it for public display.

This license ends when the content is deleted from active systems, except where continued retention is reasonably required for backups, legal compliance, security, dispute resolution, abuse prevention, or records of an enforcement action.

ProtocolGhost will not claim ownership of your private manuscript, source code, laboratory report, or other original work merely because you submitted it for support or review.

18. Your promises regarding User Content

You represent and warrant that:

  • You own the User Content or possess the rights necessary to submit it;
  • Your submission does not violate confidentiality, employment, school, platform, license, or contractual obligations;
  • Your submission does not infringe intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
  • Your submission does not contain unlawful or malicious material;
  • Your submission does not expose data you lack authority to disclose; and
  • Your submission is not materially deceptive.

Do not submit source code, logs, screenshots, forensic images, reports, or configuration files belonging to an employer, customer, school, government agency, or other third party unless you are authorized to do so.

19. Monitoring and moderation

ProtocolGhost is not obligated to review every user submission or community message before publication.

We may review, preserve, remove, restrict, or disclose content when reasonably necessary to:

  • Enforce these Terms;
  • Protect a person or system;
  • Investigate suspected fraud, abuse, or unauthorized activity;
  • Respond to a valid legal request;
  • Protect ProtocolGhost's legal rights;
  • Maintain the security and reliability of the Services; or
  • Comply with law.

Moderation does not guarantee that all harmful, inaccurate, or objectionable material will be identified or removed.

20. Feedback and suggestions

You may voluntarily provide ideas, suggestions, corrections, feature requests, or other feedback.

Unless we separately agree otherwise in writing, you grant ProtocolGhost permission to use voluntary feedback without restriction or payment. This does not transfer ownership of a complete manuscript, proprietary software project, confidential business plan, or other substantive work that you identify as confidential.

Do not submit confidential information as general product feedback.

21. ProtocolGhost intellectual property

The Services and their original content are owned by ProtocolGhost or used under license. Protected material may include:

  • The ProtocolGhost name, mark, logo, and visual identity;
  • The Security in the Dark name, text, structure, illustrations, exercises, and supporting material;
  • Course lessons, assessments, laboratory instructions, and videos;
  • Website text, design, layout, graphics, and media;
  • Original software and code not released under a separate license;
  • Downloads, templates, checklists, and worksheets;
  • Product names, slogans, and branding;
  • Compilations and arrangement of content; and
  • Other original material.

These materials may be protected by copyright, trademark, trade-dress, contract, and other laws.

No right, title, or interest is transferred to you except for the limited rights expressly provided by these Terms or a separate license.

22. Limited license to use the Services

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, ProtocolGhost grants you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable right to access and use the Services for lawful educational purposes.

Unless a separate license expressly permits it, you may not:

  • Reproduce substantial portions of paid or restricted material;
  • Republish course lessons or book chapters;
  • Upload restricted material to another platform;
  • Share account-only downloads publicly;
  • Sell, sublicense, rent, or commercially distribute the material;
  • Remove copyright, trademark, attribution, or license notices;
  • Create a competing course, book, dataset, or commercial product from substantial copied material;
  • Use restricted content to train a commercial machine-learning model without written permission; or
  • Circumvent digital-rights, access, download, or usage restrictions.

23. Permitted quotation and classroom use

You may quote brief portions of publicly available ProtocolGhost material for criticism, commentary, scholarship, reporting, review, or teaching when permitted by law and when appropriate attribution is provided.

An instructor may link students to public ProtocolGhost pages. Copying or distributing complete paid chapters, examinations, answer keys, laboratory workbooks, videos, or downloads requires permission unless the product license expressly allows classroom use.

Nothing in these Terms limits rights that cannot legally be waived, including lawful fair use where applicable.

24. Software, example code, and open-source licenses

Software and source code may be provided under a separate license, including an open-source license such as the MIT License.

When a file, repository, code block, or download includes a separate license, that license controls your use of the covered software.

A software license generally applies to code, not automatically to:

  • Book text;
  • Course videos;
  • Illustrations;
  • Logos;
  • Trademarks;
  • Examinations;
  • Laboratory prose;
  • Website design; or
  • Other non-software content.

Example code is provided for learning and may intentionally favor readability over production hardening. You are responsible for independent review, testing, threat modeling, dependency management, configuration, monitoring, maintenance, and legal approval before using example code in a real environment.

25. AI-assisted and generated material

ProtocolGhost may use artificial-intelligence tools to assist with drafting, editing, organization, research support, code review, accessibility, transcription, image development, or other production tasks.

AI-assisted material may contain errors, omissions, outdated information, insecure code, incorrect citations, or invented details. ProtocolGhost may review and revise this material, but does not guarantee that every error will be detected.

You must independently evaluate AI-generated or AI-assisted technical material before using it.

Unless expressly stated, interacting with ProtocolGhost does not grant permission to:

  • Upload restricted ProtocolGhost content into a third-party AI service;
  • use restricted material to train or fine-tune a model;
  • create a commercial substitute for ProtocolGhost content; or
  • represent AI-generated output as official ProtocolGhost guidance.

26. Certification names and third-party marks

ProtocolGhost may reference certification programs, vendors, operating systems, tools, platforms, standards, and products owned by third parties.

Unless expressly stated, ProtocolGhost is not affiliated with, sponsored by, approved by, or endorsed by those third parties.

Certification-objective mappings are educational references based on information available when the material was prepared. Certification providers may revise names, versions, objectives, policies, pricing, or examination requirements.

All third-party names, marks, and logos remain the property of their respective owners.

27. Courses and educational programs

Course descriptions, prerequisites, schedules, included materials, access periods, completion requirements, and prices will be presented on the applicable enrollment page.

Unless expressly promised in writing, enrollment does not guarantee:

  • Employment;
  • Promotion;
  • Certification;
  • Examination passage;
  • A particular salary;
  • Admission to another program;
  • Professional licensure;
  • Government clearance;
  • Access to a specific employer; or
  • Mastery of every subject discussed.

A completion record confirms only that the stated ProtocolGhost completion requirements were satisfied. It is not a professional license, government credential, or independent certification unless expressly identified as one.

28. Books and printed products

Printed books may be sold directly or through third-party retailers, printers, marketplaces, or distributors.

Third-party purchases are governed by the seller's checkout, shipping, return, refund, tax, and marketplace terms.

Edition, format, binding, page count, cover, dimensions, color reproduction, print quality, and regional availability may differ between product listings.

Errata and corrections may be published separately. A later edition may differ from an earlier edition without creating an automatic right to a free replacement unless expressly offered.

29. Digital products and downloads

Digital books, guides, worksheets, code archives, laboratory files, templates, and other downloads are licensed rather than sold unless the applicable product page expressly states otherwise.

The default license is for your personal, non-commercial educational use.

An organization, school, team, classroom, or employer must obtain an appropriate multi-user or organizational license when one is offered or request written permission.

You are responsible for:

  • Confirming file compatibility;
  • Keeping your own lawful backup;
  • Protecting downloaded material from unauthorized sharing;
  • Scanning files according to your organization's policies; and
  • Retaining purchase records.

30. Subscriptions and memberships

If ProtocolGhost offers a recurring subscription, membership, supporter tier, or other automatically renewing service, the applicable page will disclose:

  • The price;
  • Billing frequency;
  • Included benefits;
  • Renewal terms;
  • Cancellation method;
  • Trial conditions, if any; and
  • Material limitations.

By enrolling in an automatically renewing offering, you authorize the applicable payment provider to charge the selected payment method at each renewal until cancellation.

Cancellation stops future renewals but does not automatically refund charges already completed, except where required by law or stated in the applicable refund policy.

31. Prices, taxes, and payment

Prices may change before purchase. The price shown at checkout controls the transaction, subject to correction of an obvious error.

You agree to provide current and accurate billing information and authorize the applicable payment processor to charge your selected payment method.

You are responsible for applicable taxes, duties, customs charges, currency-conversion costs, payment-provider fees, or other governmental charges unless the checkout states that they are included.

ProtocolGhost does not ordinarily receive or store complete payment-card numbers when payment is handled by a third-party processor.

32. Orders and acceptance

Submitting an order is an offer to purchase. An automated acknowledgment does not necessarily mean the order has been accepted.

ProtocolGhost or the applicable seller may cancel or refuse an order because of:

  • Pricing or description errors;
  • Suspected fraud;
  • Payment failure;
  • Inventory unavailability;
  • Shipping restrictions;
  • Sanctions or export restrictions;
  • Abuse of promotions;
  • Violation of these Terms; or
  • Another legitimate business or legal reason.

If payment has been collected for a canceled order, the responsible seller or processor will issue the appropriate refund.

33. Refunds and returns

Refund and return eligibility depends on the product, delivery method, seller, and applicable law.

Product-specific refund or return terms shown before purchase supplement these Terms.

Unless otherwise stated:

  • Third-party marketplace purchases must be handled through that marketplace;
  • Printed merchandise must be returned according to the applicable store policy;
  • Customized or personalized products may be non-returnable;
  • Downloaded digital products may be non-refundable after access or download, except where required by law;
  • Completed or substantially consumed courses may be ineligible for refund; and
  • Fraudulent, abusive, or repeated refund requests may be denied where permitted by law.

Nothing in these Terms removes a mandatory consumer right that applies in your jurisdiction.

34. Chargebacks and payment disputes

Before initiating a chargeback, you agree to make a reasonable attempt to contact ProtocolGhost or the applicable seller so the issue can be investigated.

ProtocolGhost may suspend access associated with a disputed or reversed payment while the dispute is reviewed.

This section does not prevent you from exercising rights provided by your bank, card issuer, payment provider, or applicable law.

35. Merchandise

Merchandise may be sold directly or through third-party storefronts, manufacturers, printers, fulfillment providers, or marketplaces.

Product images are illustrative. Colors, placement, dimensions, materials, packaging, and other details may vary within reasonable manufacturing limits.

Shipping estimates are not guaranteed delivery dates. Delays may result from production, carrier operations, weather, customs, address errors, supply conditions, or events outside reasonable control.

As of the last update to these Terms, merchandise features may still be under development. A preview, mockup, or announced product does not create an obligation to offer the product for sale.

36. Promotions, giveaways, and discount codes

Promotions, giveaways, contests, sweepstakes, referral programs, and discount codes may be subject to separate official rules.

Unless otherwise stated:

  • Offers are limited in time;
  • Offers may not be combined;
  • Codes have no cash value;
  • Codes may not be sold or transferred;
  • Geographic and age restrictions may apply;
  • Fraudulent entries are void; and
  • ProtocolGhost may correct an error or end an offer where permitted by law.

37. Third-party services and links

The Services may link to or integrate with third-party services, including:

  • Discord;
  • Twitch;
  • YouTube;
  • GitHub;
  • Patreon;
  • Social-media services;
  • Payment processors;
  • Retailers;
  • Printers and fulfillment providers;
  • Analytics and security providers;
  • Cloud-hosting services; and
  • HolliBae at hollibae.com, a sibling brand under Ohexion LLC.

Third-party services are controlled by their respective operators and governed by their own terms, privacy policies, security practices, and availability.

ProtocolGhost is not responsible for:

  • Third-party content;
  • Third-party account actions;
  • Platform bans or restrictions;
  • Payment-processor decisions;
  • Marketplace policies;
  • Third-party outages;
  • Data collected directly by a third party; or
  • Products or services offered by an unrelated operator.

A link does not necessarily mean endorsement.

38. Privacy and data protection

Our Privacy Policy explains how ProtocolGhost collects, uses, discloses, protects, and retains personal information.

You agree not to use the Services to collect, process, disclose, or transmit personal information unlawfully.

You must not submit sensitive personal information unless the applicable feature expressly requests it and you are authorized to provide it.

ProtocolGhost cannot guarantee that information transmitted over the internet will be completely secure. You should avoid sending secrets, passwords, private keys, medical records, financial records, government identifiers, or confidential evidence through a general contact form.

39. Cookies and analytics

The Cookie Policy explains how cookies, local storage, analytics, security tools, and similar technologies may be used.

Browser settings, consent tools, privacy extensions, or regional requirements may affect the availability of certain features.

40. Accessibility

ProtocolGhost aims to make its public content accessible to a broad audience. Our current approach and contact method for accessibility concerns are described in the Accessibility Statement.

If you encounter an accessibility barrier, contact us with the page, feature, format, and accommodation needed. We will review reasonable requests in light of available technology and resources.

41. Automated access and scraping

You may not use bots, crawlers, scrapers, downloaders, headless browsers, automated agents, or similar systems to access the Services in a manner that:

  • Violates published access rules;
  • Avoids access controls;
  • creates an unreasonable load;
  • copies restricted content;
  • harvests personal information;
  • interferes with service operation;
  • creates a competing dataset or service from protected material; or
  • violates law or third-party rights.

Ordinary search-engine indexing of public pages may be permitted subject to technical directives such as robots.txt and other published controls.

42. Service security

You may not probe, scan, test, benchmark, reverse engineer, interfere with, or attempt to bypass the security of ProtocolGhost infrastructure unless you have written authorization from ProtocolGhost.

This restriction includes attempts to:

  • Enumerate accounts;
  • Guess credentials;
  • bypass authentication;
  • evade rate limits;
  • exploit a suspected vulnerability;
  • test denial-of-service conditions;
  • access administrative interfaces;
  • extract source code or secrets;
  • tamper with logs;
  • alter content; or
  • access information belonging to another user.

A suspected weakness should be reported under Section 10 rather than exploited.

43. Export controls and dual-use technology

Cybersecurity, cryptography, vulnerability-analysis, malware-analysis, digital-forensics, source-code, and software materials may be subject to export, re-export, transfer, import, sanctions, or end-use restrictions.

Classification and authorization can depend on the item, functionality, destination, recipient, end user, end use, distribution method, and other facts.

You are responsible for determining and complying with requirements that apply to your access, download, transfer, disclosure, export, re-export, or use of controlled material.

You may not use the Services to provide controlled technology, software, services, or assistance:

  • To a prohibited destination;
  • To a sanctioned or restricted person;
  • For a prohibited end use;
  • In violation of an export license or exception; or
  • In a manner designed to evade trade restrictions.

ProtocolGhost does not represent that every item is available in every country.

44. Sanctions compliance

You represent that you are not using the Services in violation of sanctions or trade restrictions that apply to the transaction.

ProtocolGhost may refuse, suspend, or cancel access or transactions when reasonably necessary to comply with sanctions, export controls, payment restrictions, platform requirements, or other law.

45. Copyright complaints and DMCA notices

ProtocolGhost respects intellectual-property rights.

If you believe material available through the Services infringes your copyright, submit a written notice through the contact page and clearly identify it as a copyright notice.

Your notice should include:

  • Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
  • Identification and location of the allegedly infringing material;
  • Your name and contact information;
  • A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law;
  • A statement that the information in the notice is accurate;
  • A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and
  • Your physical or electronic signature.

ProtocolGhost may request additional information before acting on an incomplete notice.

Where the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies, ProtocolGhost may process valid notices and counter-notices in accordance with applicable law. A dedicated agent address or registration may be published separately.

46. Repeat infringement

ProtocolGhost may suspend or terminate accounts of users who repeatedly infringe intellectual-property rights or who repeatedly submit unauthorized copyrighted material.

We may also remove access where a single violation is severe or creates substantial legal risk.

47. Accuracy and corrections

ProtocolGhost works to provide useful and accurate material, but technical, editorial, factual, formatting, code, citation, or production errors may occur.

Technology, laws, standards, certification objectives, vendor products, threat information, commands, package names, prices, links, and platform behavior can change.

ProtocolGhost may correct or revise content without notice.

Errata, update notes, repository changes, supplemental downloads, or revised editions may be used to communicate corrections.

48. No warranty of security

No educational resource, configuration, tool, checklist, control, or security program can guarantee that a system will never be compromised.

Security depends on people, architecture, configuration, maintenance, monitoring, threat conditions, dependencies, physical controls, organizational decisions, and other factors outside ProtocolGhost's control.

Use of ProtocolGhost material does not guarantee:

  • Prevention of intrusion;
  • Detection of every threat;
  • regulatory compliance;
  • admissibility of evidence;
  • recovery from an incident;
  • protection from data loss;
  • successful certification;
  • compatibility with your environment; or
  • suitability for a particular risk tolerance.

49. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT, SOFTWARE, CODE, DOWNLOADS, COURSES, BOOKS, COMMUNITY FEATURES, PRODUCTS, AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE."

PROTOCOLGHOST DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF:

  • MERCHANTABILITY;
  • FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE;
  • TITLE;
  • NON-INFRINGEMENT;
  • ACCURACY;
  • COMPLETENESS;
  • AVAILABILITY;
  • COMPATIBILITY;
  • SECURITY;
  • RELIABILITY;
  • QUIET ENJOYMENT; AND
  • RESULTS ARISING FROM USE.

PROTOCOLGHOST DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR SUITABLE FOR YOUR ENVIRONMENT.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. In those jurisdictions, exclusions apply only to the extent permitted by law.

50. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, PROTOCOLGHOST, OHEXION LLC, G. BROCK LEONARD, AND THEIR AFFILIATES, CONTRIBUTORS, CONTRACTORS, LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND REPRESENTATIVES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

THIS EXCLUSION INCLUDES DAMAGES ARISING FROM:

  • LOST PROFITS OR REVENUE;
  • LOST DATA;
  • LOSS OF BUSINESS;
  • LOSS OF GOODWILL;
  • SYSTEM DOWNTIME;
  • SECURITY INCIDENTS;
  • FAILED CONFIGURATIONS;
  • CORRUPTED FILES;
  • UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS;
  • FAILED LABORATORY ISOLATION;
  • LEGAL OR REGULATORY CONSEQUENCES;
  • REPUTATIONAL HARM;
  • EMPLOYMENT CONSEQUENCES;
  • RELIANCE ON OUTDATED OR INCORRECT INFORMATION;
  • THIRD-PARTY SERVICES;
  • LOST OPPORTUNITIES; OR
  • YOUR APPLICATION OR MISUSE OF ANYTHING LEARNED THROUGH THE SERVICES.

THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY AND EVEN IF PROTOCOLGHOST WAS ADVISED THAT THE DAMAGE WAS POSSIBLE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PROTOCOLGHOST'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF:

  • The amount you paid directly to ProtocolGhost for the affected Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; or
  • One hundred United States dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or liability limits. In those jurisdictions, these provisions apply only to the maximum extent permitted by law.

51. Essential basis of the agreement

The warranty disclaimers and liability limitations are material parts of these Terms. They allocate risk between you and ProtocolGhost and allow the Services to be offered at the stated prices, including where content is offered without charge.

52. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ProtocolGhost, Ohexion LLC, G. Brock Leonard, and their affiliates, contributors, contractors, licensors, service providers, and representatives from claims, liabilities, losses, damages, judgments, penalties, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from or relating to:

  • Your unlawful or unauthorized use of security or forensic techniques;
  • Your violation of these Terms;
  • Your violation of law;
  • Your User Content;
  • Your violation of another person's intellectual-property, privacy, contractual, publicity, or other rights;
  • Your misuse of an account, course, download, product, or community space;
  • Your negligent or intentional conduct; or
  • A claim by a third party arising from your actions.

ProtocolGhost may control the defense of a matter covered by this section. You agree to cooperate reasonably and not settle a covered claim in a manner that imposes an obligation or admission on ProtocolGhost without written approval.

53. Suspension and termination

ProtocolGhost may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access when we reasonably believe:

  • You violated these Terms;
  • Your account is compromised;
  • Your conduct creates a security or safety risk;
  • You engaged in fraud or abuse;
  • Payment was reversed or remained unpaid;
  • You attempted to evade a prior restriction;
  • Access must be restricted to comply with law;
  • Continued service would expose ProtocolGhost or another person to unreasonable risk; or
  • The applicable Service has been discontinued.

Serious violations may result in immediate termination without advance notice.

You may stop using the Services at any time. Account-deletion or cancellation options may be described in the applicable account or product interface.

54. Effect of termination

Upon termination:

  • Your right to access restricted Services ends;
  • active subscriptions may be canceled;
  • outstanding payment obligations remain due;
  • licenses that were expressly perpetual may continue subject to their terms;
  • licenses tied to active access may end;
  • ProtocolGhost may retain records where required or reasonably necessary; and
  • provisions intended to survive will remain effective.

Sections concerning ownership, licenses already granted, disclaimers, liability limitations, indemnification, dispute resolution, payment obligations, evidence preservation, and other provisions that logically should survive will survive termination.

55. Preservation and legal requests

ProtocolGhost may preserve account records, communications, logs, transaction information, or User Content when reasonably necessary to:

  • Comply with law;
  • respond to valid legal process;
  • investigate security incidents;
  • protect users;
  • enforce these Terms;
  • prevent fraud or abuse; or
  • resolve disputes.

ProtocolGhost may challenge requests that appear unlawful, overbroad, defective, or inconsistent with user rights, but does not promise to challenge every request.

56. Governing law

These Terms and disputes arising from them are governed by the laws of the State of Idaho and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

Mandatory consumer protections that apply in your place of residence remain effective to the extent they cannot lawfully be waived.

57. Informal dispute resolution

Before filing a lawsuit arising from these Terms or the Services, you agree to provide ProtocolGhost with written notice through the contact page.

The notice should include:

  • Your name and contact information;
  • The relevant account or transaction;
  • A description of the dispute;
  • Supporting documents;
  • The relief requested; and
  • Any time-sensitive concern.

The parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally before filing suit, except where immediate relief is reasonably necessary to prevent harm, preserve evidence, protect intellectual property, or comply with a limitations period.

58. Venue and jurisdiction

Unless applicable law requires otherwise, any lawsuit arising from these Terms or the Services must be brought in a state or federal court with jurisdiction in Idaho.

You consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

59. Time limit for claims

To the extent permitted by law, a claim arising from the Services must be brought within one year after the claimant knew or reasonably should have known of the facts giving rise to the claim.

A claim not brought within that period is permanently barred.

This limitation does not apply where applicable law prohibits shortening the limitations period.

60. Injunctive relief

Unauthorized access, misuse of confidential information, infringement of intellectual property, disclosure of restricted content, or interference with the Services may cause harm that cannot be adequately repaired by money alone.

ProtocolGhost may seek injunctive or equitable relief where permitted by law, without waiving other remedies.

61. Electronic communications

By using the Services, you consent to receive communications electronically where permitted by law.

Electronic communications may include:

  • Account messages;
  • purchase confirmations;
  • receipts;
  • security alerts;
  • service notices;
  • policy updates;
  • course communications;
  • support messages; and
  • legal notices.

You are responsible for maintaining a current email address and checking relevant account notifications.

Marketing messages will be handled according to applicable law and available unsubscribe controls.

62. Changes to these Terms

ProtocolGhost may revise these Terms to reflect changes in law, technology, security practices, business operations, products, community features, or the Services.

The effective date at the top of this page will be updated when revisions are published.

Where practicable, material changes affecting an active paid relationship will be communicated through the website, account interface, email, or another reasonable method.

Unless otherwise stated, revised Terms take effect when posted. Your continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

If you do not agree to a revision, you must stop using the affected Services.

63. Force majeure

ProtocolGhost will not be responsible for delay, interruption, nonperformance, or loss caused by events outside reasonable control, including:

  • Natural disasters;
  • severe weather;
  • fire;
  • flood;
  • war;
  • terrorism;
  • civil unrest;
  • labor disputes;
  • utility failures;
  • internet or telecommunications outages;
  • cloud-provider failures;
  • cyberattacks;
  • epidemics or public-health emergencies;
  • government action;
  • sanctions;
  • supply-chain disruption;
  • carrier delays; or
  • failure of a third-party platform.

64. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms, an account, a license, an enrollment, or a purchase right without ProtocolGhost's prior written consent.

ProtocolGhost may assign these Terms as part of a reorganization, transfer of assets, change in business structure, merger, acquisition, or similar transaction, subject to applicable law.

65. No agency or partnership

These Terms do not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, franchise, fiduciary, or representative relationship between you and ProtocolGhost.

You may not make commitments or representations on behalf of ProtocolGhost unless separately authorized in writing.

66. No third-party beneficiaries

Except where expressly stated, these Terms do not create enforceable rights for any person or entity other than you and ProtocolGhost.

67. Waiver

A failure or delay in enforcing a provision does not waive the right to enforce it later.

A waiver is effective only when made in writing by a person authorized to act for ProtocolGhost.

68. Severability

If a court finds a provision invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum lawful extent or modified as little as necessary to make it enforceable.

The remaining provisions will continue in effect.

69. Entire agreement

These Terms, together with policies and product-specific conditions incorporated by reference, form the entire agreement between you and ProtocolGhost concerning the Services covered by them.

They replace prior discussions, representations, or agreements concerning the same subject, except for a separate written agreement signed by an authorized representative of ProtocolGhost.

70. Order of precedence

If these Terms conflict with product-specific conditions, a software license, course-enrollment terms, community rules, or a separate written agreement, the more specific terms control for the subject they address.

A separately signed written agreement controls over these website Terms to the extent of an express conflict.

71. Headings and interpretation

Section headings are provided for convenience and do not limit the meaning of a provision.

Words such as "including" and "includes" mean "including without limitation."

A reference to writing may include an electronic record where permitted by law.

72. Project status

ProtocolGhost is under active development. Certain pages may describe planned books, courses, products, community features, software, laboratories, services, or merchandise that are not yet available.

Unless a page expressly states that an offering is available for purchase, enrollment, download, or use, descriptions of future work are informational previews.

Current project-status information may be revised as development, testing, publishing, legal review, manufacturing, platform availability, or business priorities change.

A preview does not create:

  • A reservation;
  • a preorder;
  • a guaranteed release date;
  • an inventory commitment;
  • a fixed price;
  • a promise of a particular feature; or
  • a right to compensation if plans change.

73. Contact

Questions, legal notices, accessibility concerns, privacy requests, copyright complaints, security reports, and other requests may be submitted through the contact page.

Clearly describe the nature of your request so it can be directed appropriately. Do not submit passwords, private keys, authentication tokens, complete payment-card information, confidential evidence, or unnecessary sensitive personal information.

ProtocolGhost is operated by Ohexion LLC, based in Idaho, United States.

Legal notices may be submitted through the contact method above unless a different notice address is required by law or published for a specific purpose.

74. Acknowledgment

By using the Services, you acknowledge that cybersecurity and digital-forensics material can create real technical, legal, financial, and personal consequences when used improperly.

You agree to act only with lawful authority, defined scope, reasonable care, and respect for the security and rights of others.