ACT Terms of Use

Welcome to Actionable Cybersecurity Tools (ACT), a service provided by Global Cyber Alliance, Inc. ("we" or "us" or "GCA"), a non-profit organization headquartered in New York, New York, United States, whose mission is to create and equip communities to deliver a more trustworthy Internet for all. To support our vibrant community, we provide ACT which serves this mission. We strive to make and keep cybersecurity educational and informational content from ACT available on the internet free of charge, in perpetuity. We welcome you ("you" or the "user") as a reader or contributor to ACT, and we encourage you to join the ACT community. Before you participate, however, we ask that you please read and agree to the following Terms of Use ("Terms of Use"). Overview These Terms of Use tell you about GCA’s ACT Service, our relationship with you as a user, and the rights and responsibilities guiding us. We contribute, host, and monitor an incredible quantity of cybersecurity educational and informational content. We may also delete content when it is in conflict with these Terms of Use, for legal compliance, or when faced with urgent threats of serious harm. Please be aware that you are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and reuse of ACT content under the laws of the United States of America and other applicable laws (which may include laws where you or the subject of your contributions are located).

 1. Our Mission

The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) is an international nonprofit focused on delivering a secure, trustworthy Internet that enables social and economic progress for all. GCA builds communities to deploy tools, services, and programs that provide cybersecurity at global scale. As used throughout the rest of the Terms of Use described here, our services consist of the ACT website and project (“ACT” or “website” or “Project”), the technological infrastructure that we maintain, and any technical spaces that we host for the maintenance and improvement of ACT. Because of our unique role, there are a few of things you should be aware of when considering our relationship with you, ACT, and other users: Because ACT contains content sourced from publicly available websites, cybersecurity tool owners, GCA Partners, NGOs, other nonprofits, industry consortia groups, governments, generative AI tools, and various other information sources, the vast majority of the content may or may not be edited by GCA in any way. While we might make limited efforts to monitor for broken links, copyright issues reported by users, and consistency with our content guidelines, we do not take any responsibility for this content. Similarly, unless we have expressly stated otherwise, we do not endorse any products or opinions expressed via our services nor represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any content on ACT. You are responsible for your actions: You are legally responsible for your contributions to “Talk” or “Discussion” pages within ACT, your reuse of content from ACT, your use of any APIs enabled on ACT, and your use of our services more generally. For your protection, you should exercise caution and avoid taking any actions that may result in criminal or civil liability under applicable laws. For clarity, applicable law includes at least the laws of the United States of America and the State of New York, but may include the laws of other US States or other countries depending on the facts that may vary on a case-by-case basis. Copyright or other enforcement actions are possible including against editors, contributors, and authors Non-U.S. authorities may seek to apply other country’s laws to you, including local laws where you live or where you view or edit content. We cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity, or indemnification against applying such laws.

2. Privacy Policy and GDPR

Please review our Privacy Policy's terms so that you know how we collect and use your information. https://www.globalcyberalliance.org/privacy-policy/

3. Content We Host

You may find some material objectionable or erroneous: Because we host a wide array of content that is produced or gathered from sources as cited above, you may encounter material that you find offensive, erroneous, misleading, mislabeled, or otherwise objectionable. ACT content is for general informational purposes only: Although our website hosts much information about professional cybersecurity topics, including medical, legal, or financial issues, this content is presented for general informational purposes only. It should not be taken as professional advice. Please seek independent professional counseling from someone licensed or qualified in the applicable area instead of acting on any information, opinion, or advice contained in ACT.

4. Refraining from Certain Activities

The ACT Service hosted by GCA only exists because of the vibrant community of users like you who use and contribute to the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in interacting with others in the community, act in good faith, and contribute to furthering the ACT Service's mission. We ask that all users review and follow the Universal Code of Conduct ("UCoC"), which outlines requirements for collegial, civil collaboration when using the ACT Service. We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion concerning the provisions in section 4 of these Terms of Use.

5. Password Security

You are responsible for safeguarding your password and other security credentials and should never disclose them to any third party.

6. Trademarks

Although you have considerable freedom to reuse the content on the ACT website, it is essential that, at GCA, we protect our trademark rights to protect our users from fraudulent impersonators. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks. All GCA trademarks belong to the GCA, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must comply with the ACT Terms of Use, the GCA Terms of Service, and the ACT Trademark Policy.

7. Licensing of Content

All users contributing to the ACT website must grant broad permissions to the general public to redistribute and reuse their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed and the same freedom to reuse and redistribute is granted to any derivative works. We require that, when necessary, all submitted content be licensed so that it is freely reusable by anyone. You agree to the following licensing requirements: Text to which you hold the copyright: When you submit text to which you hold the copyright, you agree to license it under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License ("CC BY-SA 4.0"). Reusers must comply with that license. Re-use: Reuse of content that we host is welcome, though exceptions exist for content contributed under "fair use" or similar exemptions under applicable copyright law. Any reuse must comply with the underlying license(s). When you reuse or redistribute a text page included in ACT, you agree to attribute the authors in any of the following fashions: Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages you are reusing (since each page has a history page that lists all contributors, authors, and editors); Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, conforms with the license, and provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Project Website; or Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude minimal contributions). Modifications or additions to material that you reuse: When modifying or making additions to text that you have obtained from the ACT Website, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY-SA 4.0 or later (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by a specific ACT addition or feature). Modifying or adding to non-text media is prohibited unless you obtain written authorization from GCA. With both text content and non-text media, you agree to indicate that the original work has been modified. If you are reusing text content in a wiki, it is sufficient to show in the page history that you changed the imported text. For each copy or modified version you distribute, you agree to include a licensing notice stating which license the work is released under, along with either a hyperlink or URL to the text of the license or a copy of the license itself.

8. DMCA Compliance

In fairness to our users and other creators and copyright holders, our policy is to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the formalities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Pursuant to the DMCA, we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, users and account holders of our system and network who are repeat infringers. However, we also recognize that not all takedown notices are valid or in good faith. In such cases, we encourage users to file counter-notifications when they appropriately believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper. Please seek legal advice if you think someone has improperly filed a DCMA notice. If you are the owner of the content being improperly used in ACT without your permission, you may request that the content be removed by filing a notice under the DMCA. To make such a request, please contact us as follows: Designated Agent: GCA Chief Legal Officer Address: 31 Tech Valley Drive, East Greenbush, NY 12061 Telephone Number: 518-596-4183 E-Mail Address: info@globalcyberalliance.org Please see 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) for proper notification requirements. Also, if you knowingly misrepresent that any activity or material on our Services is infringing, you may be liable to GCA for certain costs and damages. Instead of requesting that we remove the content, you can request editorial rights for pages containing information about specific cybersecurity tools, provided that the organization providing the corresponding tools authorizes you. Before doing so, you must create an account with the ACT Service using your name and e-mail address. Note that while this account creation form indicates that the name and e-mail address fields are optional, you must provide valid values for both fields during registration to be eligible for assuming editorial rights for ACT pages before you submit a page claim request.

9. Third-party Websites and Resources

You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although the ACT Website contains links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse them. We are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor are we obligated to monitor such third-party content.

10. Management of Websites

It is possible to notify us of illegal content or content that violates our Terms of Use (including all policies and other documents incorporated by reference). If you contact GCA with a problem, we will typically explore whether and how existing community-led mechanisms can investigate and, where appropriate, resolve it. In an unusual case, the need may arise, or the community may ask us to address an especially problematic user or inappropriate content because of significant disturbance of ACT or dangerous behavior. In such cases, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion (or where legally compelled), to: Investigate your use of ACT or our services (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or an appropriate governmental request; Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, false or unverifiable information, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests; Refuse, revert, disable, or restrict access to contributions of any user who violates these Terms of Use; Ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access for actions violating these Terms of Use, including repeat posting of unlawful material under applicable law in line with human rights principles; Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and Manage otherwise the ACT websites in a manner designed to facilitate their proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public. The moderation activities listed above may be informed or performed by software (such as traffic flood ("Denial of Service") protection). In those cases, human review usually is available upon request. In the interests of our users and ACT, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had their account or access blocked under this section, they are prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to ACT unless we provide explicit permission. GCA will not ban a user from editing, contributing, or blocking a user's account or access solely because of good faith criticism that does not result in actions otherwise violating these Terms of Use or related policies. The ACT community and its members may also take action when so allowed by applicable policies applicable to a specific ACT addition or feature, including but not limited to warning, investigating, blocking, or banning users who violate those policies. You agree to comply with the final decisions of dispute resolution bodies established by the community for the specific ACT additions or features; these decisions may include sanctions as set out by applicable policies. The blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 13 of these Terms of Use. If you believe we have not satisfactorily acted on a problematic content report or have been subjected to a GCA moderation action that you wish to challenge, you can submit a request for consideration. We reserve the right to suspend (temporarily or permanently) our handling of reports or other correspondence from users or third parties, whether about allegedly illegal or otherwise problematic content or conduct or requesting consideration against moderation actions, if such correspondence was made in bad faith, repetitive, unfounded, or abusive. In appropriate circumstances, your email address may even be blocked on our email system(s), and you will then need to contact us using our postal address (below) if you wish to further correspond with us during that block. This block is likely temporary for less severe cases (e.g., up to three polite emails about one or more meritless complaints). More frequent or abusive communications are more likely to lead to permanent measures. Designated Agent: GCA Chief Legal and Administrative Officer Address: 31 Tech Valley Drive, East Greenbush, NY 12061 Telephone Number: 646-677-5535 E-Mail Address: DesignatedAgent@Globalcyberalliance.org

11. Termination

Though we hope you will stay and continue to contribute to ACT, you can stop using our services at any time. In particular (hopefully unlikely) circumstances, it may be necessary for either ourselves or the ACT community or its members (as described in Section 10) to terminate part or all of our services, terminate these Terms of Use, block your account or access, or ban you as a user. Ifyour account or access is blocked or otherwise terminated, your public contributions and a record of your activities on or in relation to the ACT (including any correspondence you have sent us) will be unaffected (subject to applicable policies). You may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content on ACT. In such circumstances, however, you may be unable to access your account or settings. Regardless of any other provision in these Terms of Use, we reserve the right to suspend or end the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Even after your use and participation are banned, blocked, or otherwise suspended, these Terms of Use will remain in effect concerning relevant provisions, including Sections 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9-16.

12. Disputes and Jurisdiction

We hope that no serious disagreements arise involving your use of ACT. In case of a dispute, we encourage you to seek resolution through the dispute resolution procedures or mechanisms provided by ACT and GCA. If you desire to file a legal claim against us, you agree to file and resolve it exclusively in a state or federal court in New York, New York. You also agree that the laws of the State of New York and, to the extent applicable, the laws of the United States of America will govern these Terms of Use, as well as any legal claim that might arise between you and us (without reference to conflict of laws principles). You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of and agree that the venue is proper in the courts located in New York, New York, in any legal action or proceeding relating to us or these Terms of Use. To ensure that disputes are dealt with soon after they arise, you agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action you might have arising out of or related to the use of our services or these Terms of Use must be filed within the applicable statute of limitations or, if earlier, one (1) year after the pertinent facts underlying such claim or cause of action could have been discovered with reasonable diligence (or be forever barred).

13. Disclaimers

At GCA and, more specifically, via ACT, we do our best to provide educational and informational cybersecurity content to a vast audience. Still, using our services is at your sole risk. ACT was created as a free service and for the benefit and guidance of all using the material provided, with the hope of serving in part to protect us. We provide these services on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no warranty that our services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, or error-free, or that your information will be secure. We are not responsible for the content, data, or actions of third parties, and you release us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims and damages, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any claim you have against any such third parties. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through or from our services creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms of Use. Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through your use of our services is done at your discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by the service. We retain the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time, with or without notice. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the types of disclaimers in this section, so they may not apply to you either in part or in full, depending on the law.

14. Limitation on Liability

Highlighted for emphasis GCA will not be liable to you or to any other party for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses, regardless of whether we were advised of the possibility of such damage. Our liability shall not exceed one thousand U.S. dollars (USD 1000.00) in aggregate.

15. Modifications to these Terms of Use

Because modifying these Terms of Use may be necessary occasionally, we will provide notice of such modifications via the ACT website. However, please periodically review the most up-to-date version of these Terms of Use. Your continued use of our services after the new Terms of Use are updated. For the protection of the GCA and other users like yourself, you cannot use our services if you disagree with our Terms of Use.

16. Other Terms

These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint control, or joint venture relationship between you and us, GCA. For European Economic Area law, United Kingdom law, or other laws that involve a similar concept, you are not acting "under the authority of" GCA when you use the services. If you have not signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and us. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Use and a signed written agreement between you and us, the signed agreement will control. You agree that we may provide you with notices, including changes to the Terms of Use, by email, regular mail, or postings on the ACT Website. If, in any circumstance, we do not apply or enforce any provision of these Terms of Use, it is not a waiver of that provision. You understand that; unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us, you have no expectation of compensation for any activity, contribution, or idea you provide to us, the community, or the ACT Website. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, we (GCA) and you agree not to modify the applicable terms and requirements of any free license employed on the ACT Website when these Terms of Use authorize such free license. These Terms of Use were written in English (U.S.). While we hope that translations of these Terms of Use are accurate, in case of any differences in meaning between the original English version and a translation, the original English version takes precedence. Suppose any provision or part of a provision of these Terms of Use is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable. In that case, that provision or portion of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible. All other provisions of these Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.

These Terms of Use went into effect on September 26, 2023. Please note that in the event of any differences in meaning or interpretation between the original English version of this content and a translation, the original English version takes precedence.