⚠️ Safeguards & Responsible Use
Read firstOperational technology controls physical processes, so a mistake in an OT classroom can injure someone or stop a real plant. These rules apply to every lesson, lab, and student project in this course. Review them with your class before Lab 1 and restate them in your own syllabus.
Safety outranks the exercise
No activity touches a live process, safety instrumented system, or energized panel. Physical rigs require lockout/tagout, PPE, and an instructor present.
Simulation and isolated equipment only
Labs run on simulators, virtual PLCs, and bench hardware the college owns. Nothing is aimed at campus building automation, a vendor system, or an employer's plant.
Air-gapped lab segments
Keep lab networks off the campus production network. Document the isolation before class and verify it at the start of every lab session.
Defensive scope
The course teaches architecture, detection, hardening, and response. It does not distribute working exploit code, live malware samples, or attack tooling.
Incidents are case studies
Real events are analyzed for cause, impact, and lesson learned — not reconstructed as a procedure a student could follow against a live target.
Protect real-world data
Vendor drawings, customer diagrams, employer network detail, and CUI stay out of student work. Synthesize or scrub before anything reaches a shared repository.
Faculty review AI-generated content
Any generated lesson text, quiz item, or graphic gets subject-matter review and a source check before students see it. You own the accuracy.
Accessible and equitable by default
Materials meet WCAG 2.2 AA and work by keyboard. No lab depends on a paid license or vendor account a student cannot obtain.