TERMS OF SERVICE

1.1 Formation of Agreement. These Terms of Service (hereinafter "Terms," "Agreement," or "TOS") constitute a legally binding contract between you ("User," "you," or "your") and Defensive Cyber Academy LLC, a Florida limited liability company ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"), governing your access to and use of the Company's online cybersecurity training platform, including all associated content, features, services, cyber range environments, assessments, and any other offerings made available through the platform (collectively, the "Platform" or "Services"). This Agreement is formed and becomes legally binding upon the earliest of: (a) your registration for an account on the Platform; (b) your clicking of any "I Agree," "Accept," "Sign Up," or similar button presented in connection with these Terms; or (c) your access to or use of any portion of the Platform. If you are registering on behalf of an organization, entity, employer, or other third party, this Agreement is binding upon both you as an individual and upon the organization on whose behalf you are acting.

1.2 Organizational Accounts. If you access or use the Platform on behalf of a company, educational institution, government agency, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you have the requisite authority to bind that entity to these Terms, and that your acceptance of these Terms constitutes acceptance by that entity. In such cases, the terms "User," "you," and "your" shall refer collectively to both you as an individual and to the entity you represent. If you do not have such authority, or if you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Platform.

1.3 Right to Modify Terms. Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, amend, supplement, or replace any portion of these Terms at any time, subject to the notice provisions set forth in Section 20 of this Agreement. Where modifications are material in nature, Company will provide no less than thirty (30) days' prior notice to registered users via email to the address associated with your account and/or via prominent in-Platform notification. For modifications necessitated by legal requirements, security considerations, or court orders, changes may take effect immediately or on a shorter notice period. Your continued access to or use of the Platform following the effective date of any revised Terms shall constitute your binding acceptance of such modifications. If you do not agree to any modified Terms, you must cease use of the Platform and cancel your subscription pursuant to Section 7 of this Agreement.

1.4 Effective Date. These Terms are effective as of October 2, 2026 and shall govern all access to and use of the Platform from that date forward, superseding and replacing any prior terms, agreements, or understandings between you and Company relating to the subject matter hereof.

2.1 Age Requirement. THE PLATFORM IS STRICTLY INTENDED FOR ADULTS ONLY. YOU MUST BE AT LEAST EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS OF AGE TO REGISTER FOR AN ACCOUNT, ACCESS THE PLATFORM, OR USE ANY PORTION OF THE SERVICES. NO MINORS ARE PERMITTED TO USE THE PLATFORM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THROUGH THE USE OF A PARENT OR GUARDIAN'S ACCOUNT. By accessing the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age. Company reserves the right to terminate any account upon reasonable suspicion or discovery that the account holder is under eighteen (18) years of age, without notice and without refund of any fees paid.

2.2 Legal Capacity. By accessing or using the Platform, you represent and warrant that you have the full legal right, power, and authority to enter into and be bound by this Agreement under the laws of your jurisdiction of residence, and that doing so does not violate any other agreement to which you are a party or by which you are otherwise bound.

2.3 Legal Eligibility to Receive Services. You represent and warrant that you are not barred, prohibited, or restricted from receiving services similar to those provided by the Platform under the laws of the United States or any other applicable jurisdiction. You further represent and warrant that you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

2.4 Export Controls and Sanctions Compliance. Access to and use of the Platform by individuals or entities on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, or any other U.S. export-controlled or sanctioned list, is strictly prohibited. By registering for or using the Platform, you represent and warrant that neither you nor any organization on whose behalf you are acting appears on any such list. Company reserves the right to deny access, suspend, or terminate accounts upon discovery of any violation of this Section.

2.5 Organizational Authority. Where an individual registers for or uses the Platform on behalf of a corporate entity, employer, educational institution, or other organization, such individual represents and warrants that they have actual authority to bind that organization to these Terms, that they are duly authorized to enter into contractual obligations on behalf of that organization, and that all information provided on behalf of that organization is accurate and complete.

3.1 Accurate Registration Information. You agree to provide true, accurate, current, and complete information at the time of account registration, and to maintain and promptly update your account information as necessary to keep it true, accurate, current, and complete at all times during the term of this Agreement. Provision of false, misleading, or inaccurate information is grounds for immediate account suspension or termination without refund.

3.2 Authentication Method. The Platform uses third-party OAuth identity providers via Supabase authentication as its primary account registration and login mechanism. By registering through an OAuth provider, you authorize Company to receive and process information made available by that provider in accordance with the Company's Privacy Policy and the provider's own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You are responsible for the security of your OAuth-provider account credentials and any authentication method associated with your Platform account, and Company shall bear no liability for unauthorized access resulting from the compromise of your OAuth or other authentication credentials.

3.3 Account Security Obligations. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your account credentials, including any OAuth-provider login, access tokens, and any other authentication information associated with your Platform account. You agree not to share your account credentials with any other person or entity, and not to permit any other person or entity to access your account or the Platform through your credentials. You shall take all reasonable precautions to prevent unauthorized access to your account.

3.4 Concurrent Session Policy. Each registered account is permitted a maximum of one (1) concurrent active session at any given time. The Platform's technical infrastructure enforces this limitation. Attempts to circumvent the concurrent session limitation, whether through the use of VPNs, shared credentials, automated scripts, or any other technical or non-technical means, are strictly prohibited and constitute a material violation of this Agreement and the Acceptable Use Policy set forth in Section 8.

3.5 Notification of Unauthorized Access. You agree to notify Company immediately, and in no event later than forty-eight (48) hours after becoming aware, of any actual or suspected unauthorized access to your account, any breach of your account security, any loss, theft, or unauthorized disclosure of your credentials, or any other security incident affecting your account. Notification must be submitted to Company's security contact email or via the Platform's support channel.

3.6 Limitation of Liability for Unauthorized Use. Company shall not be liable for any loss, damage, liability, or expense incurred by you or any third party arising from unauthorized use of your account that results from or is attributable to your failure to maintain the confidentiality of your credentials, your sharing of credentials with any third party, your failure to timely notify Company of any security breach or suspected unauthorized access, or any other act or omission on your part that facilitates or fails to prevent unauthorized access.

3.7 Right to Suspend or Terminate. Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend, restrict, or terminate any account where Company has reason to believe that account security has been compromised, that the account is being used in violation of these Terms, or that continued account access poses a risk to the Platform, other users, or third parties. Such suspension or termination may occur without prior notice and without refund of any prepaid fees.

4.1 Scope of Services. Defensive Cyber Academy LLC provides an online, subscription-based training platform designed to develop Security Operations Center (SOC) analyst skills through structured, defensive cybersecurity education. The Platform offers a curated library of learning modules, instructional videos, interactive labs, written course materials, and automated graded practical assessments focused exclusively on defensive cybersecurity concepts, tools, and methodologies as they apply to SOC analyst operations.

4.2 Cyber Range Environments. Subscribers are provided access to simulated cyber range environments provisioned on demand through Hetzner cloud infrastructure. These environments are isolated, sandboxed digital training spaces designed to allow users to practice defensive SOC techniques in a controlled setting. Range environments are subject to the additional terms and conditions set forth in Section 11 of this Agreement.

4.3 Automated Assessment and Grading. The Platform includes an automated grading and scoring system that evaluates user performance on practical exercises, labs, and assessments. Automated grading is the primary means by which course completion, progress, and performance records are tracked. Additional terms governing automated assessments are set forth in Section 12 of this Agreement.

4.4 Platform Availability. Company will use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain Platform availability and accessibility. However, Company does not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or continuous access to the Platform. Planned maintenance, unplanned outages, infrastructure failures (including those attributable to third-party providers such as Hetzner, Vercel, Supabase, or Stripe), or circumstances beyond Company's reasonable control may result in periods of unavailability. No Service Level Agreement (SLA) with guaranteed uptime is provided for free-tier or base-tier subscriptions unless expressly stated in a separate written agreement executed by an authorized representative of Company.

4.5 Service Modifications and Discontinuation. Company reserves the right, at any time, to modify, enhance, update, discontinue, or remove any feature, service, content, module, or functionality of the Platform, in whole or in part, with or without notice, provided that Company will use reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of material discontinuations that significantly affect paid subscribers' access to core Platform features.

4.6 Defensive Training Only: Explicit Scope Limitation. THE PLATFORM IS DESIGNED AND OPERATED EXCLUSIVELY AS A DEFENSIVE CYBERSECURITY TRAINING PLATFORM. Company does not provide, and the Platform does not offer, any offensive security training, penetration testing tools, exploit development instruction, attack technique tutorials, red team methodologies, or any other content, capability, or instruction that could be used to compromise, attack, probe, or exploit computer systems, networks, or applications. Any use of the Platform, its content, or its cyber range environments for offensive security purposes, or any attempt to repurpose Platform resources for offensive activities, is a material violation of this Agreement and the Acceptable Use Policy set forth in Section 8.

5.1 Subscription Plans. Access to the Platform's features and content is provided on a subscription basis. Available subscription tiers, their associated features, and their pricing are published on the Platform and are subject to change in accordance with Section 5.6 of this Agreement. Company reserves the right to introduce new subscription tiers, modify existing tier features, or discontinue existing tiers at any time, subject to applicable notice provisions.

5.2 Payment Processor. All subscription billing and payment processing for the Platform is handled exclusively through Stripe, Inc. ("Stripe"), a third-party payment processor. By subscribing to the Platform, you agree to be bound by Stripe's Services Agreement, Stripe's Privacy Policy, and all other applicable Stripe terms and conditions in addition to these Terms. Company does not store your full credit card number, bank account information, or other sensitive payment data on its own servers; such information is managed directly by Stripe in accordance with applicable Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).

5.3 Recurring Billing. By subscribing to any paid subscription tier, you authorize Company, through Stripe, to charge your designated payment method on a recurring basis, either monthly or annually, depending on the subscription plan you select, on each billing anniversary date. Recurring charges will continue automatically until you cancel your subscription in accordance with Section 7 of this Agreement or until your account is terminated. By providing your payment information and initiating a subscription, you expressly consent to recurring charges without further authorization for each billing cycle.

5.4 Accepted Payment Methods. The Platform accepts payment methods made available through Stripe, which may include major credit cards, debit cards, and any other payment methods Stripe may support from time to time. Company does not accept payment by cash, personal check, money order, bank wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or any other payment method not processed through Stripe.

5.5 Taxes. Subscription fees are exclusive of all applicable taxes, levies, duties, or similar governmental charges, including but not limited to sales tax, value-added tax (VAT), or goods and services tax (GST). You are solely responsible for determining, collecting, remitting, and reporting any and all such taxes applicable to your use of the Platform based on your jurisdiction. Company reserves the right to collect applicable taxes where required by law.

5.6 Price Changes. Company reserves the right to modify subscription pricing at any time. In the event of a price increase affecting your current subscription plan, Company will provide you with no less than thirty (30) days' prior written notice via email to your registered email address before the new pricing takes effect at your next billing renewal date. Your continued subscription following the effective date of the new pricing shall constitute your acceptance of the revised pricing. If you do not agree to the new pricing, you must cancel your subscription before your next renewal date in accordance with Section 7 of this Agreement.

5.7 Failed Payments and Service Suspension. In the event that any scheduled payment is declined, fails, or is otherwise not processed successfully, Company will provide a grace period of up to seven (7) calendar days during which you may update your payment method or resolve the payment failure. If the payment failure is not resolved within the grace period, Company reserves the right to immediately suspend your access to the Platform and all associated Services, including cyber range environments, until the outstanding balance is paid in full. Continued failure to resolve payment may result in account termination in accordance with Section 19.

6.1 Trial Eligibility. Company may, at its sole discretion, offer free trial periods for new subscribers. Free trials are available to new individual users only and are limited to one (1) free trial per person and one (1) free trial per organization. Users or organizations that have previously subscribed to any paid tier, or that have previously used a free trial, are not eligible for additional free trials. Company reserves the right to verify trial eligibility and to revoke trial access if eligibility requirements are not met.

6.2 Automatic Conversion to Paid Subscription. Unless you cancel your trial subscription before the expiration of the applicable free trial period, your trial will automatically convert to a paid subscription at the then-current rate for your selected subscription tier, and your designated payment method will be charged on the day immediately following the conclusion of the trial period. It is your responsibility to cancel before the trial ends if you do not wish to be charged. Trial cancellation must be completed through your account dashboard.

6.3 Promotional Pricing. Company may from time to time offer promotional pricing, discount codes, or special offers. Promotional pricing is subject to specific terms and conditions communicated at the time of the promotion. Unless expressly stated otherwise, promotional pricing applies only to the initial subscription period and does not carry over to subsequent billing cycles. Company reserves the right to modify or withdraw promotional offers at any time without notice.

7.1 Cancellation by User. You may cancel your subscription at any time by accessing the account management section of the Platform dashboard and following the applicable cancellation instructions. Cancellation requests must be submitted through the Platform's account dashboard; Company does not process subscription cancellations via telephone or informal written request.

7.2 Access Following Cancellation. Upon cancellation of your subscription, your access to the Platform and its Services will remain active through the end of the then-current paid billing period for which payment has already been received. Following the expiration of the current billing period, your access will be revoked, your account will be transitioned to an inactive or cancelled status, and you will no longer be charged. No partial-period extensions of access beyond the end of the current billing cycle are provided.

7.3 No Prorated Refunds. Except as expressly required by applicable Florida law or as provided in Section 7.4 below, subscription fees are non-refundable. Company does not provide prorated refunds for any unused portion of a billing period upon cancellation, downgrade, or termination of your subscription. This includes, without limitation, cancellations that occur mid-billing-cycle, partial use of Platform features during any given period, or temporary inactivity during a paid subscription period.

7.4 Refund Requests for Technical Failures and Billing Errors. Refund requests arising from documented technical failures attributable to Company's Platform (as distinguished from third-party infrastructure outages beyond Company's control), or from demonstrable billing errors, will be reviewed by Company on a case-by-case basis. To submit a refund request, you must contact Company at sales@defensivecyberacademy.com within fourteen (14) calendar days of the charge giving rise to the request, and provide a detailed written description of the basis for the request, including any supporting documentation. Company's determination on any refund request shall be final and binding, subject to applicable Florida law.

7.5 Chargebacks. If you initiate a chargeback, payment dispute, or reversal with your credit card issuer, bank, or Stripe in connection with any charge for Platform subscription fees, Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to immediately suspend or permanently terminate your account and deny any future access to the Platform. Company further reserves the right to dispute any chargeback it determines to be unwarranted and to pursue all available legal remedies to recover amounts properly owed.

8.1 Permitted Uses. You are permitted to access and use the Platform solely for lawful personal or professional purposes consistent with the Platform's stated mission of providing defensive SOC analyst cybersecurity training. All access must be by you personally, under your registered account, and in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

8.2 Prohibited Conduct. You agree that you will not, under any circumstances, engage in any of the following activities:

• Using knowledge, access credentials, range resources, or any other benefit derived from the Platform to attack, probe, scan, compromise, or otherwise interfere with any real-world computer system, network, application, or digital infrastructure that you do not own or for which you do not have explicit, documented written authorization from the lawful owner;
• Sharing your account credentials, authentication tokens, or any other access method with any other person or entity, or providing access to the Platform to any unauthorized third party through your account;
• Attempting to circumvent, bypass, disable, or otherwise defeat the Platform's one-active-session limitation, access control mechanisms, authentication systems (including Supabase-managed authentication), session management controls, or any other security measures implemented by Company;
• Reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, decrypting, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code, underlying algorithms, trade secrets, or intellectual property embodied in the Platform, its software, or its content;
• Scraping, crawling, data mining, or systematically extracting any content, data, course materials, lab content, or other information from the Platform by automated or manual means without Company's express prior written authorization;
• Downloading, copying, reproducing, distributing, publicly posting, selling, sublicensing, or creating derivative works based on any course content, lab material, assessment content, range scenario, scoring logic, video, module, or other protected content from the Platform;
• Uploading, transmitting, introducing, or otherwise making available any malware, ransomware, trojan horse, worm, virus, spyware, adware, exploit code, malicious script, or any other harmful, disruptive, or unauthorized code or content to the Platform, the Hetzner range infrastructure, the Vercel hosting environment, or the Supabase authentication infrastructure;
• Using cyber range environments provisioned through the Platform to conduct, facilitate, or assist any attack, probe, scan, enumeration, denial-of-service, data exfiltration, or any other malicious or unauthorized activity against any system, network, or resource outside the designated, isolated training range environment;
• Attempting to access, obtain, alter, delete, or otherwise interfere with data belonging to other users of the Platform, or attempting to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Platform's infrastructure, databases, administrative systems, or other backend systems;
• Engaging in any activity that materially interferes with or disrupts the normal operation of the Platform, its hosting infrastructure (Vercel), its range infrastructure (Hetzner), its authentication systems (Supabase), or its payment processing systems (Stripe);
• Misrepresenting your identity, impersonating any person or entity, or making false representations regarding your affiliation with any person, organization, or entity in connection with your use of the Platform;
• Using the Platform in furtherance of any violation of applicable federal, state, or local law or regulation, including without limitation laws related to computer fraud and abuse, unauthorized access, data privacy, export controls, or intellectual property;
• Sharing, distributing, publicly posting, publishing, or otherwise disseminating any course content, lab instructions, graded materials, assessment questions, or answers outside of the Platform without Company's express prior written consent.

8.3 Enforcement. Company reserves the right to investigate, monitor, and take appropriate action in response to suspected violations of this Acceptable Use Policy, including but not limited to immediate account suspension, permanent account termination without refund of any prepaid fees, removal of violating content, reporting of violations to applicable law enforcement or regulatory authorities, and pursuit of civil or criminal legal remedies. Company's determination regarding AUP violations shall be final, subject only to any rights expressly provided under applicable law.

9.1 No Public User-Generated Content. The Platform does not provide, support, or host any public user-generated content functionality. There are no public forums, community discussion boards, public posting features, user profile pages visible to other users, or any other mechanism by which users may publish or share content publicly through the Platform. Any content you submit through the Platform is submitted directly to Company and is not made accessible to other users.

9.2 Feedback and Support Submissions. Users may submit feedback, feature suggestions, bug reports, support requests, and other communications to Company through designated channels, including the Platform's support dashboard, contact email addresses, or other officially provided channels. By submitting any such feedback, suggestion, report, or communication to Company, you acknowledge and agree that: (a) such submissions do not constitute confidential information and Company has no confidentiality obligations with respect thereto; (b) you grant Company a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, incorporate, adapt, modify, publish, and distribute such submissions for any purpose, including without limitation for product development, improvement, and marketing, without compensation, attribution, or further consent from you; and (c) Company is free to act on any feedback or suggestion without any obligation to you.

9.3 No Confidential Information in Submissions. You are advised not to include any confidential, proprietary, trade secret, personally identifiable, or sensitive information in any feedback, bug report, or support submission. Company shall not be responsible for any disclosure or use of such information that you include in any submission to Company's support or feedback channels.

10.1 Company Ownership. The Platform and all of its content, features, and functionality are and shall remain the exclusive property of Defensive Cyber Academy LLC. This includes, without limitation, all course materials, video content, written instructional content, lab exercises, simulated cyber range scenarios, scoring algorithms and logic, assessment questions and answer keys, software, source code, APIs, databases, user interface designs, graphics, trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, and any other intellectual property embodied in or associated with the Platform. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by Company.

10.2 Limited License to Users. Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms, including without limitation the timely payment of all applicable subscription fees, Company hereby grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Platform and its content solely for your own lawful, personal or professional defensive cybersecurity training purposes during the term of your active subscription. This license does not include any right to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works from, reverse engineer, or otherwise exploit any portion of the Platform or its content.

10.3 Restrictions on Use of Content. You expressly acknowledge and agree that you shall not download (except where a download function is explicitly provided for a specific piece of content), reproduce, copy, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, sub-license, or otherwise exploit any course content, lab materials, assessment materials, or other Platform content for any purpose whatsoever without the prior written consent of Company. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of Platform content constitutes copyright infringement and may subject you to civil and criminal penalties.

10.4 User Data and Submissions. You retain ownership of any original data or content that you submit directly to Company through support tickets, feedback submissions, or other communications, subject to the license granted to Company in Section 9.2 of this Agreement. Company does not claim ownership over user-authored support communications.

10.5 Trademarks. "Defensive Cyber Academy," the Defensive Cyber Academy LLC logo, and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs, slogans, and marks associated with the Platform are trademarks of Defensive Cyber Academy LLC and may not be used without Company's prior express written permission. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names referenced on the Platform are the property of their respective owners.

11.1 Provisioning and Infrastructure. Cyber range environments made available through the Platform are provisioned on demand using Hetzner cloud infrastructure. Your use of any cyber range environment is subject to this Agreement, Company's Acceptable Use Policy in Section 8, and Hetzner's own Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service. To the extent that Hetzner's policies impose obligations or restrictions on the use of its infrastructure, those obligations and restrictions apply to your use of range environments through the Platform.

11.2 Isolation Requirements. Cyber range environments are designed, configured, and maintained as isolated, sandboxed simulated training environments. You expressly acknowledge and agree that you must not, under any circumstances, attempt to route network traffic, communications, or any other data outside of the designated range environment; connect the range environment to any real-world network, system, or resource; or use the range environment as a launching point for any activity targeting systems or networks outside the isolated training environment. Any breach of this Section constitutes a material violation of this Agreement and may subject you to legal liability.

11.3 Data Retention for Range Sessions. Company retains range telemetry data, session logs, activity records, and associated metadata generated during cyber range sessions for a period of thirty (30) to ninety (90) days from the date of generation, after which such data is deleted or anonymized in accordance with Company's data retention practices. Company does not guarantee the preservation of any range environment state, data, or progress beyond a given training session.

11.4 Automatic Session Termination. Cyber range environments may be automatically terminated or suspended upon the occurrence of extended inactivity periods, expiration of applicable session time limits, subscription cancellation or suspension, or detection of potential AUP violations. Company will use reasonable efforts to provide advance warning of automatic session termination where technically feasible, but does not guarantee such notice in all circumstances.

11.5 Monitoring and Inspection. Company reserves the right to inspect, monitor, and analyze range telemetry, session logs, network traffic logs, and activity data generated within cyber range environments for purposes of security monitoring, compliance enforcement, abuse detection, Platform improvement, and investigation of suspected AUP violations. By accessing any cyber range environment, you expressly consent to such monitoring and inspection activities.

11.6 Resource Limitations. Company reserves the right to throttle, limit, cap, or otherwise restrict the computational resources, network bandwidth, storage, and other infrastructure resources available to any given user or session within the cyber range environment in order to prevent abuse, ensure equitable access across all users, and protect the integrity and availability of the Platform's infrastructure.

12.1 Automated Grading Systems. All practical exercises, lab assignments, and assessments offered through the Platform are evaluated and scored by automated grading systems. These systems assess user performance based on predetermined criteria, expected outputs, and scoring rubrics developed by Company. You acknowledge and accept that automated grading is the primary and standard method for evaluating performance on the Platform.

12.2 Finality of Automated Grades. Automated grades and scores are final for purposes of course completion tracking, progress records, and any associated performance metrics maintained by the Platform, unless successfully modified through the manual review process described in Section 12.3 below.

12.3 Manual Review Requests. Users who believe that an automated grade is inaccurate, incomplete, or the result of a technical error may submit a written request for manual review by contacting Company's support team through the Platform dashboard or designated support channels. Manual review requests must be submitted within seven (7) calendar days of the grade being assigned. Company will review the submission in good faith and provide a written determination. Company's determination upon manual review is final and binding, and no further appeals process is available under these Terms.

12.4 Completion Records and Certificates. Where Company offers certificates of completion, badges, or other records of achievement, such credentials are issued based on the results of automated grading and course completion data. Company makes no representation that such credentials will be recognized by any third-party employer, certification body, government agency, or educational institution.

12.5 No Warranty of Career or Certification Outcomes. Company expressly disclaims any warranty or representation that completion of any course, lab, or training program on the Platform will result in any specific career outcome, job placement, professional advancement, salary change, or success on any third-party certification examination. All training content is provided for educational purposes only.

13.1 Privacy Policy. Company's collection, use, retention, disclosure, and protection of personal data is governed by Company's Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference and constitutes a part of this Agreement. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and the Privacy Policy with respect to data privacy matters, the Privacy Policy shall control. You are encouraged to review the Privacy Policy carefully before using the Platform.

13.2 Data Collected. Company collects certain categories of personal data necessary for the operation of the Platform, including but not limited to account registration information, subscription and billing information, usage data, cyber-range activity logs, assessment performance data, and authentication data processed through Supabase and third-party OAuth identity providers.

13.3 Data Retention Schedule. Company retains personal and operational data in accordance with the following schedule:

13.4 No Sale of Personal Data. Company does not sell your personal data. Company may share personal data only with trusted third-party service providers that support Platform operations (including Hetzner, Supabase, Vercel, Stripe, and OAuth identity providers) and only to the extent necessary for those providers to perform their contracted functions.

13.5 Security Measures. Company implements commercially reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include encryption of data in transit using industry-standard TLS protocols, encryption of data at rest where applicable, secure authentication management through Supabase, and payment data security managed by Stripe in accordance with PCI-DSS standards. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no security measure is perfect or impenetrable, and Company cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data.

13.6 Data Breach Notification. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal data, Company will provide notification in accordance with applicable Florida law, including the Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA), Fla. Stat. § 501.171, and any other applicable state or federal data breach notification requirements. Company will use reasonable efforts to notify affected users without unreasonable delay following Company's discovery and investigation of the breach.

14.1 Third-Party Service Providers. Company relies on various third-party service providers to deliver the Platform, including but not limited to: (a) Hetzner Online GmbH, for cyber-range infrastructure; (b) Vercel Inc., for hosting and deployment; (c) Supabase, for database and authentication services; (d) Stripe, Inc., for payment processing; (e) OAuth identity providers, for authentication and account creation.

14.2 User Acknowledgment of Third-Party Terms. By using the Platform, you acknowledge that your use of the Services involves the processing of your data and activity by the third-party providers identified in Section 14.1, and you agree to comply with the terms, policies, and acceptable use requirements of each such provider to the extent applicable to your use of the Platform. Company is not a party to, and shall bear no responsibility for, any agreement between you and any third-party provider.

14.3 Company Not Liable for Third-Party Provider Actions. Company shall not be liable for any acts, omissions, outages, data handling practices, or service disruptions attributable to third-party providers, including but not limited to Hetzner cyber-range infrastructure, Vercel hosting, Supabase authentication, Stripe payment processing, or OAuth identity-provider services.

14.4 OAuth Authentication. Your use of third-party OAuth identity providers for Platform authentication is subject to the terms, conditions, and privacy policies of those providers. Company does not control and is not responsible for any provider's data practices, security measures, or account-management policies. You are solely responsible for reviewing and understanding the terms applicable to any OAuth provider you choose to use.

14.5 Stripe Payment Processing. Your subscription billing and payment processing are conducted through Stripe, Inc. By subscribing to the Platform, you agree to Stripe's Services Agreement (available at stripe.com/legal). Company has no control over Stripe's payment processing operations, fee structures, fraud detection measures, or fund withholding actions, and shall not be liable for any action taken by Stripe in connection with your payment information or transactions.

15.1 "As Is" and "As Available." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE PLATFORM AND ALL SERVICES, CONTENT, FEATURES, CYBER RANGE ENVIRONMENTS, ASSESSMENTS, AND OTHER OFFERINGS PROVIDED BY COMPANY ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE. COMPANY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS, OR UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE ACCESS OR OPERATION.

15.2 No Warranty of Specific Outcomes. COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION, OR GUARANTEE THAT YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM OR COMPLETION OF ANY COURSE, MODULE, LAB, OR ASSESSMENT WILL RESULT IN ANY PARTICULAR CAREER OUTCOME, PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION, EMPLOYMENT, SALARY INCREASE, PROMOTION, OR ANY OTHER SPECIFIC PERSONAL OR PROFESSIONAL RESULT. ALL TRAINING IS PROVIDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

15.3 No Warranty of Uninterrupted Access. COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION, THAT ACCESS WILL BE CONTINUOUS OR UNINTERRUPTED, THAT ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT THE PLATFORM OR ITS SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT THE RESULTS OF USING THE PLATFORM WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

15.4 Florida Law. Some jurisdictions, including potentially the State of Florida, may not allow the exclusion of certain implied warranties. To the extent that any such warranties cannot be fully disclaimed under applicable Florida law, such warranties are limited in duration to the minimum period required by law.

16.1 Cap on Aggregate Liability. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, COMPANY'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE PLATFORM, OR THE SERVICES, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF SUBSCRIPTION FEES ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO COMPANY IN THE TWELVE (12) CALENDAR MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE CLAIM GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY; OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100.00 USD).

16.2 Exclusion of Consequential and Indirect Damages. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPANY, ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, OR ASSIGNS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY: (A) INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES; (B) LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS; (C) LOSS OF GOODWILL OR REPUTATION; (D) LOSS, CORRUPTION, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO DATA, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION RANGE ENVIRONMENT DATA, COURSE PROGRESS DATA, ASSESSMENT RECORDS, OR ACCOUNT DATA; OR (E) COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; IN EACH CASE ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE PLATFORM, OR THE SERVICES, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER COMPANY WAS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY ASSERTED.

16.3 Exceptions. The limitations and exclusions of liability set forth in this Section 16 shall not apply to: (a) damages arising from Company's gross negligence or willful misconduct; or (b) any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable Florida law or other mandatory applicable law.

16.4 Basis of the Bargain. You acknowledge and agree that the limitations of liability set forth in this Section 16 reflect a reasonable and fair allocation of risk between you and Company, and are a fundamental element of the basis of the bargain between you and Company. Company would not be able to provide the Platform at its current pricing without these limitations.

17.1 User's Indemnification Obligation. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Defensive Cyber Academy LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees, contractors, agents, successors, and assigns (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") from and against any and all third-party claims, actions, suits, proceedings, demands, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and court costs) arising out of or relating to any of the following:

• Your violation of any provision of these Terms, including without limitation any provision of the Acceptable Use Policy set forth in Section 8;
• Your violation of any applicable federal, state, or local law, rule, or regulation in connection with your use of the Platform;
• Your infringement, misappropriation, or violation of any intellectual property right, privacy right, or other right of any third party;
• Your use of cyber range environments outside the scope permitted by these Terms, including without limitation any attempt to use range environments to attack, probe, or scan external systems or networks;
• Any unauthorized access to or use of the Platform, another user's account, or Company's infrastructure facilitated by your negligence, misrepresentation, or failure to maintain credential security; or
• Any dispute between you and any third party, including without limitation any employer, co-worker, or organization on whose behalf you purported to act, arising from your use of the Platform.

17.2 Defense and Control. Company reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate fully with Company in asserting any available defenses. You shall not settle any claim or proceeding subject to your indemnification obligation without Company's prior written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

18.1 Governing Law. These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them, the Platform, or the Services shall be governed by Florida law, without regard to conflict‑of‑law principles.

18.2 Election of Forum (Arbitration or Small Claims). For any dispute, Defensive Cyber Academy LLC may elect either (a) binding arbitration, or (b) small‑claims court. You agree to resolve the dispute exclusively in the forum the LLC selects.

18.3 Small‑Claims Court. If the LLC elects small‑claims court and the matter is eligible, the claim must be filed in the small‑claims court of the Florida county where the LLC is registered. You consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in that court.

18.4 Arbitration. If the LLC elects arbitration, or if the claim is not eligible for small‑claims court, the dispute shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules and applicable consumer procedures. Arbitration shall occur in Okaloosa County, Florida, unless otherwise agreed, and may be conducted remotely where permitted. The arbitrator may award any relief a court could grant. The award is final and enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction.

18.5 Informal Resolution. Before any arbitration or small‑claims filing, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally. A party must provide written notice describing the dispute and requested relief. The parties then have thirty (30) days to negotiate. Formal proceedings may begin only after this period unless both parties agree otherwise. Notices to the Company must be sent to support@defensivecyberacademy.com and the mailing address in Section 22.

18.6 Jury Trial Waiver. YOU AND COMPANY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

18.7 Class Action Waiver. YOU AND COMPANY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION. All claims must be brought individually. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any representative proceeding.

18.8 Equitable Relief. Company may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction, without first engaging in informal resolution or arbitration, to address actual or threatened violations involving intellectual property, trade secrets, confidentiality, or the Acceptable Use Policy.

19.1 Termination by User. You may terminate this Agreement at any time by cancelling your subscription through the Platform's account dashboard and requesting account closure through the support channels. Cancellation of your subscription does not result in immediate deletion of your account data; data is retained in accordance with the retention schedule set forth in Section 13.3.

19.2 Termination or Suspension by Company. Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to immediately suspend, restrict, or permanently terminate your account and access to the Platform, with or without prior notice and without refund of any prepaid fees, upon the occurrence of any of the following: (a) your violation of any provision of these Terms, including the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) your failure to pay any subscription fee when due, following the applicable grace period; (c) any suspected or confirmed fraudulent activity in connection with your account; (d) any use of the Platform in a manner that creates legal liability or regulatory exposure for Company; (e) requirements of applicable law, court order, or instruction from a regulatory or law enforcement authority; or (f) any other material breach of this Agreement.

19.3 Effect of Termination. Upon any termination of your account or subscription, whether by you or by Company: (a) all rights and licenses granted to you under these Terms shall immediately and automatically terminate; (b) your access to the Platform, all course content, learning modules, and cyber range environments shall be immediately revoked; (c) any active cyber range sessions associated with your account shall be automatically terminated; and (d) your data shall be retained and subsequently deleted in accordance with the retention schedule set forth in Section 13.3, unless retention is required by applicable law.

19.4 Survival. The following Sections, by their nature intended to survive termination, shall survive the expiration or termination of this Agreement for any reason: Section 9 (User-Generated Content and Submissions), Section 10 (Intellectual Property), Section 13 (Data Collection, Retention, and Privacy), Section 15 (Disclaimers of Warranties), Section 16 (Limitation of Liability), Section 17 (Indemnification), Section 18 (Dispute Resolution and Governing Law), and Section 21 (General Provisions). Any payment obligations that have accrued prior to termination shall also survive.

20.1 Right to Modify. Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, amend, supplement, or replace any portion of these Terms at any time. All modifications shall be effective as of the date specified in the updated Terms, which shall not be earlier than the date of notice to users, except as provided in Section 20.3.

20.2 Notice of Material Changes. For modifications that Company determines, in its reasonable judgment, to be material (meaning modifications that substantively alter your rights, obligations, or the nature of the Services), Company will provide no less than thirty (30) days' prior written notice before the modified Terms take effect. Such notice will be provided via email to your registered email address and/or via a prominent in-Platform notification. You are responsible for maintaining a current and accurate email address in your account settings to ensure receipt of such notices.

20.3 Immediate Modifications. Notwithstanding Section 20.2, Company may implement modifications to these Terms with immediate effect and without advance notice where: (a) such modifications are required by applicable law, court order, or regulatory mandate; (b) such modifications are necessary to address an imminent security threat or vulnerability; or (c) such modifications involve non-material clarifications, corrections, or administrative updates. Company will provide prompt notice of any such immediate modifications.

20.4 Acceptance of Modified Terms. Your continued access to or use of the Platform following the effective date of any modified Terms shall constitute your binding acceptance of the modified Terms in their entirety. If you do not agree to any modified Terms, your sole and exclusive remedy is to cease use of the Platform and cancel your subscription in accordance with Section 7 of this Agreement prior to the effective date of the modified Terms.

21.1 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found by a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, legal, and enforceable, or, if it cannot be so modified, it shall be severed from these Terms. The remaining provisions of these Terms shall continue in full force and effect, and shall not be affected or impaired by the invalidity or unenforceability of any severed provision, provided that the essential economic terms of this Agreement are not thereby materially altered.

21.2 Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with Company's Privacy Policy and any additional terms incorporated by reference herein, constitute the entire and exclusive agreement between you and Company with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersede and replace any and all prior and contemporaneous negotiations, representations, warranties, understandings, proposals, or agreements between you and Company, whether written or oral, relating to the Platform and Services. No purchase order, work order, or other document submitted by you shall add to, modify, or supersede these Terms.

21.3 No Waiver. Company's failure or delay in exercising any right, power, or privilege under these Terms shall not constitute or be deemed a waiver of such right, power, or privilege. No single or partial exercise of any right, power, or privilege shall preclude any future exercise thereof or the exercise of any other right, power, or privilege. No waiver of any breach of any provision of these Terms shall constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach of the same or any other provision.

21.4 Force Majeure. Company shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, government actions, infrastructure failures, or service disruptions affecting third-party infrastructure providers (including Hetzner, Vercel, Supabase, Stripe, or OAuth identity providers).

21.5 Assignment. You may not assign, transfer, delegate, or sublicense any of your rights or obligations under these Terms, in whole or in part, without Company's prior written consent, and any purported assignment without such consent shall be null and void. Company may freely assign, transfer, or delegate its rights and obligations under these Terms, in whole or in part, to any affiliate, successor entity, or in connection with any merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, sale of assets, or operation of law, without your consent and without prior notice to you, provided that the assignee assumes all of Company's obligations under these Terms.

21.6 Notices. Except as otherwise provided in these Terms, all official notices, demands, requests, or other communications required or permitted under these Terms shall be in writing. Notices from Company to you will be sent to the email address associated with your registered account. Notices from you to Company must be sent via email to support@defensivecyberacademy.com, with a copy to the mailing address listed in Section 22 where required by the nature of the notice. Notices shall be deemed given upon delivery to the applicable email address or upon confirmed receipt at the mailing address, as applicable.

21.7 Headings. Section and subsection headings in these Terms are included for convenience and reference purposes only and shall not be used in the interpretation or construction of any provision of this Agreement, and shall not affect the meaning or interpretation of these Terms in any respect.

21.8 Relationship of the Parties. The relationship between you and Company created by these Terms is that of independent contracting parties. Nothing in these Terms shall be construed to create a partnership, joint venture, agency, employment, or fiduciary relationship between you and Company.

If you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries regarding these Terms of Service, your account, the Platform's Services, billing, or any other matter, you may contact Defensive Cyber Academy LLC through the following channels:

Defensive Cyber Academy LLC
5753 Highway 85 North, Box #3666
Crestview, FL 32536
United States

General Inquiries:
Email: support@defensivecyberacademy.com
Phone: 407-668-9770

Security and Privacy Matters:
Email: security@defensivecyberacademy.com

Technical Support:
Available via the Platform dashboard support channel.

Billing and Refund Disputes:
Email: sales@defensivecyberacademy.com

Legal Notices:
Must be submitted in writing to the mailing address above, with a concurrent copy to support@defensivecyberacademy.com.

Company will endeavor to respond to all inquiries within a reasonable time. Response times may vary depending on inquiry volume and the nature of the request. For urgent security concerns, users are directed to contact Company's security email address listed above.