Rules of engagement
We test you, not the world.
A service that attacks people is only safe if the limits are exact. These are ours. They are the spine of the product, and they appear here as plainly as the prices.
Signed first
Nothing is ever tested until every adult in scope has signed their own authorization. No exceptions, no verbal consent, no surprises.
Stoppable
One word ends any exercise, at once, with no questions. A human is reachable 24/7 behind every test we run.
Inward only
The capability points at our client and no one else. We will not investigate a third party or test someone who has not agreed.
Six principles
What we hold to, every time.
Each of these is reviewed by a lawyer before a first paying client. None of them bends for a bigger fee.
Consent is personal
Each adult in scope signs their own authorization. A principal cannot consent on behalf of a spouse, an adult child, or an employee. One signature covers one person.
We test our client, not the world
Banks, carriers, employers, and vendors are out of scope. They come into scope only when that organization signs its own authorization, for its own systems.
Own systems only
Technical testing covers systems the client owns or controls. Employer-issued devices and accounts are excluded unless the employer signs for them.
Minimum effect
Each test stops at the smallest result that proves the point. No real money moves. No real data leaves. No account stays changed afterward.
Always stoppable
Every exercise has a stop word and a 24/7 human contact. Saying the word ends the exercise immediately, with no questions asked.
Humans approve every exercise
Agents never contact a person on their own initiative. A person designs, approves, and supervises each exercise, start to finish.
One word stops everything.
Every exercise carries a stop word: halt. Anyone in scope can say it, in any channel, at any hour. The exercise ends on the spot, and a person is already on the line. There is no penalty for using it, and no explanation owed.
The consent envelope
Draw the line yourself.
The top tiers buy "unannounced" testing. Unannounced still means pre-authorized. The envelope is a signed document that sets, for each person, exactly what is allowed and what is never touched. Move an item across the line to see how it works.
Inside the envelope
Tested, with written permission
Out of scope
Never touched
The locked items can never move in. Each needs its own signature, or is never a target at all.
A real envelope also sets an annual renewal and a right to withdraw at any time. Withdrawal takes effect at once; it needs no reason and carries no penalty.
Per person
What each adult sets.
The envelope is filled in once, together, and reviewed every year. It belongs to the person it describes.
- Channels allowed
- Email, text, voice, in person, physical premises. Each is turned on or off by name.
- Topics off limits
- Health, children's safety, bereavement, legal trouble, and anything else the person names. These are never used as material.
- Hours and places
- Times of day and locations that are always off limits, such as a bedroom, a hospital, or after a set hour.
- Voice and likeness
- Whether a consenting relative's voice or likeness may be simulated. Only with that relative's own written consent.
- Renewal
- The envelope expires and is signed again each year. Nothing rolls over silently.
- Withdrawal
- A right to withdraw at any time, in full or in part, effective immediately.
And the children
Minors are never the targets of social-engineering exercises. A household's protocol can still protect a minor's devices, with a parent's consent, as technical testing only. No child is ever phoned, messaged, or approached as part of a bout.
Data custody
Your findings are yours.
What we learn about you belongs to you. We hold as little as we can, for as short a time as we can.
Findings are client property. They are kept encrypted and per-client, never pooled, and handed over in full whenever you ask.
Recordings are deleted after the debrief. An exercise recording exists only long enough to teach from, unless you ask us to keep it.
The box can live in your home. For the top tiers, the private inference hardware sits on your premises, so client data never leaves machines you control.
Staff access is logged and reviewed. Who looked at what is recorded. Our own team is tested the same way; we get this service first.
What we refuse
The work we will not take.
A loyal adversary is defined as much by what it declines. These are not negotiable, whatever the fee.
Testing someone who has not consented, including a spouse or an employee.
Requests to "find out" about a third party. This is a security service, not an investigator.
Exercises designed to humiliate a person, or to collect leverage over them.
Any client who wants the capability pointed outward, at people who never agreed.
The olive tree
An old idea, written down.
In the Odyssey, Penelope tests a returning stranger with a secret only her husband could know: their bed was carved from a living olive tree, rooted to the ground. It was the first family passphrase.
We help each household write its own olive tree: a phrase, a call-back number, the rule that money moves need two people. The consent envelope is the same instinct, set down on paper. You decide the limits in advance, so the test, and the real attempt, both meet a household that is ready.
