CompTIA Security+ SY0-401 Exam Overview

This post has info on the Security+ SY0-401 exam. This is an entry-level IT certification.

Exam Structure

• Number of Questions: 90 questions
• Duration: 90 minutes, not including survey time, about 1 minute per question
• Score Range: 100-900
• Passing Score: 750 (roughly 83%, not including experimental questions)
• Types of Questions:
  • Multiple Choice – can have more than one answer
  • Performance Based - perform the requested action
  • Matching – match items from 2 lists
  • Drag and Drop – visual matching
  • Data Entry – fill in the blank

Exam Domains

1. Network Security 20%
2. Compliance and Operational Security 18%
3. Threats and Vulnerabilities 20%
4. Application, Data and Host Security 15%
5. Access Control and Identity Management 15%
6. Cryptography 12%

Exam History

• SY0-601: November 12, 2020, current
• SY0-501: October ​4, 2017, retiring July 31, 2021
• SY0-401: May 1, 2014, retired July 31, 2018 (US date, all others December 15, 2018)
• SY0-301: 2011, retired December 31, 2014
• SY0-201: 2008, retired December 31, 2011
• SY0-101: 2002, retired July 31, 2009

Update: Added the new SY0-601 exam to the list.
Update: Added the new SY0-501 exam to the list.

Study Notes

A current overview of CompTIA Security+ certification exam SY0-401. In the same order as Darril Gibson's book, CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-401 Study Guide.

1. Security Basics
2. Network Security
3. Advanced Network Security
4. Securing Hosts and Data
5. Malware and Social Engineering
6. Identifying Advanced Attacks
7. Managing Risk
8. Preparing for Business Continuity
9. Understanding Cryptography
10. Exploring Security Policies
11. Review Those Ports

After the Exam

• Requires 50 Continuing Education credits after passing the exam.
• CompTIA Security+ Page
• Update: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Objectives
• Update: CompTIA Security+ SY0-501 Exam Objectives
• CompTIA Security+ SY0-401 Exam Objectives
• Update: 6 Skills You'll Learn with CompTIA Security+

Likely Jobs

• Security Administrator / Specialist / Consultant / Engineer / Architect
• Systems Administrator
• Helpdesk Manager / Analyst
• Network / Cloud Engineer / Administrator
• Security Engineer / Analyst
• DevOps / Software Developer
• IT Auditors
• IT Project Manager
• Information Assurance Technician

The U.S. Department of Defense requires CompTIA Security+ certification for military personnel or contractors.

Security+ Acronym Addendum

Be prepared to know what these are or, at the very least, what they reference to.

Acronym	Meaning
3DES	Triple Digital Encryption Standard
802.1x	Port-based authentication protocol
AAA	Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
ACE	Access Control Entity
ACK	Acknowledge
ACL	Access Control List
AES	Advanced Encryption Standard
AES-256	Advanced Encryption Standards 256-bit
AH	Authentication Header
ALE	Annualized Loss Expectancy
AP	Access Point
API	Application Programming Interface
APT	Advanced Persistent Threat
ARO	Annualized Rate of Occurrence
ARP	Address Resolution Protocol
ASCII	American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASP	Application Service Provider
AUP	Acceptable Use Policy
BAC	Business Availability Center
BCP	Business Continuity Planning
BIA	Business Impact Analysis
BIND	Berkeley Internet Name Domain
BIOS	Basic Input / Output System
BPA	Business Partners Agreement
BPDU	Bridge Protocol Data Unit
BYOD	Bring Your Own Device
CA	Certificate Authority
CAC	Common Access Card
CAN	Controller Area Network
CAPTCHA	Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
CAR	Corrective Action Report
CCMP	Counter-Mode / CBC-Mac Protocol
CCTV	Closed-Circuit Television
CERT	Computer Emergency Response Team
CFB	Cipher Feedback
CHAP	Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
CIA	Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability
CIO	Chief Information Officer
CIRT	Computer Incident Response Team
CMS	Content Management System
COOP	Continuity of Operation Planning
CP	Contingency Planning
CRC	Cyclical Redundancy Check
CRL	Certificate Revocation List
CSP	Cloud Service Provider
CSR	Certificate Signing Request
CSR	Control Status Register
CSRF	Cross-Site Request Forgery
CSU	Channel Service Unit
CTO	Chief Technology Officer
CVE	Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
DAC	Discretionary Access Control
DACL	Discretionary Access Control List
DBA	Database Administrator
dBd	Decibels-dipole
dBi	Decibels-isotropic
dBm	Decibels-milliwatt
DDOS	Distributed Denial of Service
DEP	Data Execution Prevention
DES	Digital Encryption Standard
DHCP	Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHE	Data-Handling Electronics
DHE	Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral
DLL	Dynamic Link Library
DLP	Data Loss Prevention
DMZ	Demilitarized Zone
DNAT	Destination Network Address Transaction
DNAT	Dynamic Network Address Translation
DNS	Domain Name Service (Server)
DNSSEC	Domain Name System Security Extensions
DOS	Denial of Service
DRP	Disaster Recovery Plan
DSA	Digital Signature Algorithm
DSL	Digital Subscriber line
DSU	Data Service Unit
EAP	Extensible Authentication Protocol
EAP-TLS	Extensible Authentication Protocol - Transport Layer Security
EAP-TTLS	Extensible Authentication Protocol - Tunneled Transport Layer Security
ECC	Elliptic Curve Cryptography
ECDHE	Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Exchange
ECDSA	Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
EFS	Encrypted File System
EMI	Electromagnetic Interference
ESD	Electrostatic Discharge
ESN	Electronic Serial Number
ESP	Encapsulated Security Payload
FACL	File System Access Control List
FCoE	Fibre Channel over Ethernet
FDE	Full Disk Encryption
FTP	File Transfer Protocol
FTPS	File Transfer Protocol Secured (over SSL)
GCM	Galois Counter Mode
GPG	Gnu Privacy Guard
GPO	Group Policy Object
GPS	Global Positioning System
GPU	Graphic Processing Unit
GRE	Generic Routing Encapsulation
GUI	Graphical User Interface
HDD	Hard Disk Drive
HIDS	Host Based Intrusion Detection System
HIPS	Host Based Intrusion Prevention System
HMAC	Hashed Message Authentication Code
HOTP	HMAC based One Time Password
HSM	Hardware Security Module
HTML	HyperText Markup Language
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTPS	Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (over SSL)
HVAC	Heating, Ventilation Air Conditioning
IaaS	Infrastructure as a Service
ICMP	Internet Control Message Protocol
ICS	Industrial Control Systems
ID	Identification
IDF	Intermediate Distribution Frame
IdP	Identity Provider
IDS	Intrusion Detection System
IEEE	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IGMP	Internet Group Management Protocol
IIS	Internet Information Services
IKE	Internet Key Exchange
IM	Instant Messaging
IMAP4	Internet Message Access Protocol v4
IP	Internet Protocol
IPS	Intrusion Prevention System
IPSEC	Internet Protocol Security
IPv4	Internet Protocol version 4
IPv6	Internet Protocol version 6
IR	Incident Response
IRC	Internet Relay Chat
IRP	Incident Response Procedure
IRT	Incident Response Team
ISA	Interconnection Security Agreement
iSCSI	Internet Small Computer System Interface
ISP	Internet Service Provider
ISSO	Information Systems Security Officer
ITCP	IT Contingency Plan
IV	Initialization Vector
JBOD	Just a Bunch of Disks
KDC	Key Distribution Center
KEK	Key Encryption Key
L2TP	Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
LAN	Local Area Network
LDAP	Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LEAP	Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
LSO	Local Shared Objects
MaaS	Monitoring as a Service
MAC	Mandatory Access Control
MAC	Media Access Control
MAC	Message Authentication Code
MAN	Metropolitan Area Network
MBR	Master Boot Record
MD5	Message Digest 5
MDF	Main Distribution Frame
MITM	Man-in-the-Middle
MOU	Memorandum of Understanding
MPLS	Multi-Protocol Layer Switch
MSCHAP	Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
MTBF	Mean Time Between Failures
MTTF	Mean Time to Failure
MTTR	Mean Time to Recover
MTU	Maximum Transmission Unit
NAC	Network Access Control
NAT	Network Address Translation
NDA	Non-Disclosure Agreement
NDP	Network Discovery Protocol
NFC	Near Field Communication
NIC	Network Interface Card
NIDS	Network Based Intrusion Detection System
NIPS	Network Based Intrusion Prevention System
NIST	National Institute of Standards & Technology
NOP	No operation
NOS	Network Operating System
NoSQL	Not only Structured Query Language
NTFS	New Technology File System
NTLM	New Technology LANMAN
NTP	Network Time Protocol
OAUTH	Open Authorization
OCSP	Online Certificate Status Protocol
OLA	Open License Agreement
OS	Operating System
OSI	Open Systems Interconnection
OVAL	Open Vulnerability Assessment Language
P2P	Peer to Peer
PaaS	Platform as a Service
PAC	Proxy Auto Configuration
PAM	Pluggable Authentication Modules
PAN	Personal Area Network
PAP	Password Authentication Protocol
PAT	Port Address Translation
PBKDF2	Password Based Key Derivation Function 2
PBX	Private Branch Exchange
PCAP	Packet Capture
PEAP	Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol
PED	Personal Electronic Device
PFS	Perfect Forward Secrecy
PGP	Pretty Good Privacy
PII	Personally Identifiable Information
PIV	Personal Identity Verification
PKI	Public Key Infrastructure
POP3	Post Office protocol version 3
POTS	Plain Old Telephone Service
PPP	Point-to-point Protocol
PPTP	Point to Point Tunneling Protocol
PSK	Pre-Shared Key
PTZ	Pan-Tilt-Zoom
RA	Recovery Agent
RA	Registration Authrity
RAD	Rapid Application Development
RADIUS	Remote Authentication Dial-in User Server
RAID	Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAID-0	Disk striping
RAID-1	Disk mirroring
RAID-5	Disk striping with parity, 3 or more disks
RAID-6	Disk striping with parity, 4 or more disks
RAM	Random Access Memory
RAS	Remote Access Server
RAT	Remote Access Tool
RBAC	Role Based Access Control
RBAC	Rule Based Access Control
RC4	Rivest Cipher 4 (Ron's Code)
RDP	Remote Desktop Protocol
RFI	Radio Frequency Interference
RFID	Radio Frequency Identification
RIPEMD	RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest
ROI	Return of Investment
RPO	Recovery Point Objective
RSA	Rivest, Shamir, & Adleman
RTO	Recovery Time Objective
RTP	Real-Time Transport Protocol
S/MIME	Secure / Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
SaaS	Software as a Service
SAML	Security Assertions Markup Language
SAN	Storage Area Network
SCADA	System Control and Data Acquisition
SCAP	Security Content Automation Protocol
SCEP	Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol
SCSI	Small Computer System Interface
SDLC	Software Development Life Cycle
SDLM	Software Development Life Cycle Methodology
SEH	Structured Exception Handler
SELinux	Security Enhanced Linux
SHA	Secure Hashing Algorithm
SFTP	Secure File Transfer Protocol
SHTTP	Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol
SID	Security Identifier
SIEM	Security Information and Event Management
SIM	Subscriber Identity Module
SIRT	Security Incident Response Team
SLA	Service Level Agreement
SLE	Single Loss Expectancy
SMS	Short Message Service
SMTP	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SMTPS	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure
SNMP	Simple Network Management Protocol
SOAP	Simple Object Access Protocol
SONET	Synchronous Optical Network Technologies
SPIM	Spam over Internet Messaging
SPOF	Single Point of Failure
SQL	Structured Query Language
SSD	Solid State Drive
SSH	Secure Shell
SSID	Service Set Identifier
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer
SSO	Single Sign On
SSTP	Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol
STP	Shielded Twisted Pair
STP	Spanning Tree Protocol
SYN	Synchronize
TACACS+	Terminal Access Controller Access Control System
TCO	Total Cost of Ownership
TCP/IP	Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
TFTP	Trivial File Transfer Protocol
TGT	Ticket Granting Ticket
TKIP	Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
TLS	Transport Layer Security
TOTP	Time-Based One-Time Password
TPM	Trusted Platform Module
TSIG	Transaction Signature
UAT	User Acceptance Testing
UEFI	Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
UDP	User Datagram Protocol
UPS	Uninterruptable Power Supply
URI	Uniform Resource Identifier
URL	Universal Resource Locator
USB	Universal Serial Bus
UTM	Unified Threat Management
UTP	Unshielded Twisted Pair
VDI	Virtualization Desktop Infrastructure
VLAN	Virtual Local Area Network
VLSM	Variable Length Subnet Masking
VM	Virtual Machine
VoIP	Voice over IP
VPN	Virtual Private Network
VSAN	Virtual Storage Area Network
VTC	Video Teleconferencing
WAF	Web Application Firewall
WAP	Wireless Access Point
WEP	Wired Equivalent Privacy
WIDS	Wireless Intrusion Detection System
WIPS	Wireless Intrusion Prevention System
WPA	Wireless Protected Access
WPA2	WiFi Protected Access 2
WPS	WiFi Protected Setup
WTLS	Wireless TLS
XML	Extensible Markup Language
XSRF	Cross-Site Request Forgery
XSS	Cross-Site Scripting
XTACACS	Extended Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System