Terms of use

Who these apply to

These terms are between you and Ferres Systems (ABN 98 663 151 710), and they apply when you use this website. If you do not accept them, the remedy is simple: do not use the site.

This site is information, not advice

Everything published here, including the field notes, the guides, the checklists and the sample documents, is general information about security and IT. It is written carefully and we stand behind it, but it is not advice about your particular business, and it cannot be. We have not seen your environment.

Nothing on this website creates a client relationship, and no page here should be read as a professional opinion about your security posture, your legal obligations, your insurance position or your compliance status. If you need an answer about your situation specifically, that is what an engagement is for, and the smallest version of it is the free Exposure Check.

The free tools

Two free tools on this site run entirely in your browser: the Essential Eight readiness checklist and the incident cost estimator. Neither sends anything anywhere and neither stores anything.

Both produce indicative results from the answers you give them. The incident cost estimator deliberately shows a range rather than a single number, because a point estimate would imply a precision that does not exist. Do not use either as the basis for an insurance declaration, a tender response, a board paper or any other statement someone else will rely on. Use them to decide whether a real assessment is worth doing.

The pricing estimator

The pricing estimator at /pricing/ works out an indicative monthly figure for our managed services from the plan, team size and add-ons you choose. It is an estimate, not a quote, and not an offer capable of acceptance.

The monthly figure is for the package and any modules you selected at our published rates, plus any extra computers beyond one per person and any add-ons you ticked. It is in Australian dollars, with GST added on top and the figure including GST shown alongside. It does not include onboarding, which is quoted separately after a short scoping review, or Microsoft 365 Business Premium or equivalent Google Workspace licensing, which is billed by Microsoft, Google or your licence reseller. Work charged by the hour when you need it is not in the monthly figure either. For larger teams we price it with you rather than from a page, so treat the figure as a starting point.

Scope, price and what is included are confirmed in writing before you commit to anything. Rates can change. Every estimate shows the version of the rate card it was worked out from, and it reflects that version's rates; a later version may differ. The price you pay is the one in your written scope.

The estimator does its arithmetic in your browser. If you ask us to email the estimate or to talk it through, the details you give are handled as the privacy policy describes.

The Exposure Check

The Exposure Check looks at what a domain shows the public internet. It is passive: nothing is installed, nothing is logged into, nothing is changed, and everything it reports was already visible to anyone who cared to look.

By submitting a domain you confirm that you are entitled to ask about it. That is why we require the email address to be at the domain being checked, and it is not a rule we relax, including for consultants checking a client's domain. Do not submit a domain that is not yours to submit.

The report describes external posture at a moment in time. It says nothing about what is happening inside your Microsoft 365 tenant, how your devices are configured, or whether anyone is watching. A clean report is not a statement that you are secure, and we will not pretend otherwise.

The sample documents

The redacted penetration test report, the evidence checklists, the policy templates and the worksheets are genuine Ferres Systems work with client details removed. They are published so you can judge our writing before you spend anything.

You may use them inside your own business, adapt them and share them with your own staff and advisers. You may not resell them, republish them as your own, or pass them off as your work to a third party. The templates are starting points that you will need to adapt: a policy adopted unread is worse than no policy at all, which is a point the AI use policy makes about itself.

Everything else on this site, including the copy, design, code and the Ferres Systems name and marks, remains ours.

Engagements are separate, and they take precedence

This page does not govern paid work. Every engagement runs on its own written scope setting out what we will do, what you will have at the end, and when. Where that scope says something different from this page, the scope wins.

Prices shown on this site, including the fixed price for the Security Baseline Assessment and the figures the pricing estimator produces, are current at the time of publication and are not an offer capable of acceptance. A quote becomes binding when it is in a written scope.

Availability

We try to keep the site up and the information on it current, and we do not guarantee either. Pages change, guidance moves, and something written about the Essential Eight or the Privacy Act in one year may not be the whole picture in the next. Where a page carries a date, read it in that light.

The response commitments described on this site, including the 30-minute priority-one response commitment, apply to clients on the managed security service under a current engagement. They are not commitments to website visitors or to enquiries.

Links to other sites

Where we link out, it is because the source is worth reading. We do not control those sites and we are not responsible for their content or their handling of your information.

The booking calendar on /book/ is provided by Calendly. Booking a call through it is also subject to Calendly's own terms and privacy policy.

Liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss arising from your use of this website or from reliance on general information published here, including indirect or consequential loss.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where we are permitted to limit our liability for a service, we limit it to resupplying the service or paying the cost of having it resupplied.

Privacy

What we collect and how we handle it is set out in full in the privacy policy. In short: our own code sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising tracking, though the booking page loads Calendly, which may set its own. We hold what you type into a form or the booking calendar, plus ordinary server logs and a few small technical records. Emails from our forms are delivered through Resend and calls are booked through Calendly, and the policy says exactly what each form collects and where it goes.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and the courts of Victoria have jurisdiction.

Changes

We may update these terms. The version on this page is the current one and the date at the top tells you when it last moved.