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License and Usage

Intellectual Property & Licensing

This course material is an Open Educational Resource (OER). I have explicitly chosen to license this work to support the academic community, foster collaboration, and remove financial barriers for students.

What This Means for You

You are free to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

  1. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit (see below), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
  2. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

A Note to Publishers and Commercial Entities

The ShareAlike provision is strictly enforced. If you incorporate this material into a product, that product must be released under the same open CC BY-SA 4.0 license. You may not enclose this content within a closed-source or proprietary paywall without releasing the derivative work freely.

🤝 Community Impact (The "Courtesy Request")

While not legally required by the license, I have a professional request:

If you use this material in your classroom or training program, please let me know!

Knowing where and how this content is used helps me:

  1. Demonstrate the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) to my institution.
  2. Justify the time spent maintaining and updating these labs.
  3. Connect with other educators to improve the curriculum.

[ Link to Contact Form or Email Address ] — Just a quick "Hey, I'm using this at [School Name]" is enough!

Philosophy & Motivation

I chose this licensing model specifically to empower educators and increase equity.

  • Accessibility: Financial constraints should never prevent a student from learning cybersecurity. By keeping this material open, we ensure all students have access to high-quality resources from Day 1.
  • Remix Culture: No two classrooms are the same. Educators are encouraged to "pay it forward" by adapting these labs to fit their specific learning objectives and sharing those improvements back with the community.

How to Cite This Work

If you are adapting or redistributing this work, please use the following attribution format:

[Title of Your Course/Book] by Barrett Busch is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.