1. Agreement
These terms apply to the free IT Wes Small Business Security Checkup at itwes.com. By checking the acknowledgment and choosing “See my results,” you agree to these terms. If you are using the tool for an organization, you confirm that you have authority to do so.
The general Website Terms of Use and Privacy Notice also apply. If these terms conflict with the general Website Terms about this checkup, these terms control.
2. What the checkup is
The checkup is a short, nontechnical self-assessment. It uses the answers you choose to calculate a simplified score, category breakdown, and suggested priorities. It is meant to help a small business identify topics worth reviewing with its internal team, insurer, attorney, IT provider, or qualified cybersecurity professional.
No purchase is required. Using the checkup does not create a technician-client relationship, managed-security relationship, audit engagement, fiduciary duty, or promise that IT Wes will accept follow-up work.
3. What the checkup is not
The checkup is not:
- A penetration test, vulnerability scan, configuration review, or examination of a live system.
- A security, privacy, legal, regulatory, insurance, accounting, or compliance opinion.
- A certification under HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST, CMMC, the FTC Safeguards Rule, an insurer’s controls, or another standard.
- A guarantee that a business is secure, compliant, insurable, recoverable, or free from vulnerabilities.
- A substitute for an asset inventory, risk assessment, backup test, incident-response exercise, or professional review.
Do not submit the score as formal proof of compliance, due diligence, cyber-insurance eligibility, or security assurance unless the receiving party has independently agreed to accept it for that limited purpose.
4. Your authority and answers
Use the checkup only for a business, system, or environment you own or are authorized to assess. Do not use it to investigate another person or organization without permission.
The result depends entirely on the answers provided and the tool’s simplified scoring model. Choose “I’m not sure” when that is the honest answer. A high score can still miss serious risks, and a low score does not prove a breach or violation.
5. Keep sensitive information out of the tool
Describe the environment, not its secrets
Do not enter passwords, verification codes, recovery keys, private keys, payment-card data, Social Security numbers, health records, customer lists, confidential vulnerability details, exact public IP addresses, or credentials. General descriptions are enough.
6. Privacy and report sharing
Your answers remain in the current browser tab. The checkup does not automatically submit them to IT Wes, save them to a server, place them in browser storage, or load Google Analytics on the checkup page.
The report can be printed, saved, or copied. If you choose “Discuss with Wes,” the page opens your email app with a summary and copies the full report to your clipboard so you can decide whether to paste or send it. Ordinary email and clipboard history may not be appropriate for sensitive information.
Closing or refreshing the tab can erase the answers. IT Wes cannot recover a report that was not sent or saved by you.
7. Using the results
The recommendations are general and may not fit your systems, contracts, staff, vendors, laws, insurance policy, or risk tolerance. Before making a material change, confirm the current configuration, create and test backups, understand dependencies, obtain authorization, and use a qualified professional when needed.
Do not weaken a working control solely to improve the score. A business can have valid compensating controls that this simple checkup does not measure.
8. No warranty
The checkup is provided free of charge on an “as available” basis. To the fullest extent the law permits, IT Wes does not make implied warranties about the tool, score, availability, completeness, accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement.
Nothing here erases a right that applicable law does not allow IT Wes to waive.
9. Liability boundaries
To the fullest extent permitted by law, IT Wes is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss arising solely from use of the free checkup or reliance on its results. This includes lost data, lost revenue, business interruption, a denied insurance claim, or the cost of responding to an incident.
Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, personal injury caused by negligence, or another responsibility that applicable law does not allow IT Wes to limit.
10. Changes and contact
IT Wes may improve the questions, scoring, recommendations, and these terms. The version you accepted is identified in the report text. Changes apply prospectively.
Questions about the checkup can be sent to wes@itwes.com or discussed by phone at (520) 500-8WES.