Goal: contain mistakes quickly and ask for help without creating a second security or data problem.
Prerequisites: none.
Execution context: reading and scenarios only.
Stop, Contain, Report#
When something may affect credentials, confidential data, shared compute, or important files:
- Stop the command, job, upload, or sharing action when it is safe to do so.
- Contain the immediate risk: revoke a token, cancel a runaway job, or remove unintended access.
- Preserve evidence such as timestamps, job IDs, repository links, and sanitized error messages.
- Report promptly to your supervisor and the responsible lab/ETH support contact.
- Do not conceal or improvise destructive cleanup.
Prompt reporting is a professional safety behavior. It is easier to recover a recent mistake than an undocumented one.
How To Ask For Technical Help#
Include:
- your operating system;
- where the command ran;
- the shell or application;
- the documentation section followed;
- the exact command with secrets replaced by
<redacted>; - the exact error message;
- what you expected;
- safe checks already attempted.
Never include passwords, tokens, private keys, recovery codes, or confidential research content.
Verification#
You should be able to choose the first action for each scenario:
- a GitHub token appears in a commit;
- an Euler array launches more tasks than intended;
- another user can access a folder they should not see;
- an AI transcript contains protected project material;
- an important file disappears from scratch storage.
Common Failure And Safe Recovery#
You are unsure whether an event is serious enough to report. Report the facts and say what is uncertain. Do not delay containment while trying to prove the full impact yourself.
Ask For Help When#
Use the Troubleshooting Index for ordinary technical errors. For a real incident, do not use the public Passport issue form. Choose one private route now:
- Lab project, NAS permission, or research data: message your supervisor and lab IT through the private lab channel you already use. State that this is an incident and include only the minimum facts needed to start triage.
- Suspected stolen credential, phishing click, malware, or cyberattack: follow ETH's reporting cyber attacks and incidents procedure. ETH identifies the IT Services Service Desk or the responsible IT Support Group as the reporting route.
- Euler service or account problem without confidential research content: use ETH HPC support. Do not email protected project data or credentials.
These routes are asynchronous. Submit the report, preserve evidence, and stop the affected activity; your supervisor does not need to be online while you complete the report.
Core Completion#
Return to the Core checklist, then begin the tracks selected in START_HERE.md.
Verified: 2026-09-03. Review by: 2026-12-03. Owner: IDEAL Lab IT.