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CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Exam

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Question 1 of 85

A smart city project is deploying various IoT sensors across the city to gather data on traffic patterns, weather, pollution levels, and more. Which of the following is the MOST critical security consideration when deploying these sensors?

Question 2 of 85

A company has decided to engage in a new business venture. Before they move forward, the security team conducts several analysis sessions, interviews, and reviews historical data to generate a list of potential security threats that the new venture could face. This activity is a primary component of which step in the risk management process?

Question 3 of 85

A large financial organization wants to ensure that all employees understand the importance of cybersecurity and the role they play in safeguarding company assets. Which of the following managerial security controls will be MOST effective in achieving this?

Question 4 of 85

A major pharmaceutical company recently announced an increase in drug prices. Following the announcement, their website was taken offline by a DDoS attack, with a message posted online by a group claiming responsibility and demanding affordable healthcare for all. Which type of threat actor is MOST likely behind this attack?

Question 5 of 85

After deploying wireless access points in a large manufacturing facility, employees report inconsistent wireless connectivity in some areas. What tool would be most effective for the IT team to use to visualize areas of weak wireless signal strength?

Question 6 of 85

In an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model, which of the following tasks is typically the responsibility of the cloud customer in a standard Cloud Responsibility Matrix?

Question 7 of 85

A company’s website was temporarily defaced with a humorous meme, but no sensitive data was stolen or any significant damage done. The attacker left a message bragging about their first successful hack. Which type of threat actor is MOST likely responsible for this attack?

Question 8 of 85

A financial institution recently discovered that a large number of confidential customer records were being accessed and copied during off-business hours. Upon investigation, it was found that the access came from an authenticated user within the company, who had recently been passed over for a promotion. Which type of threat actor is MOST likely responsible for this security incident?

Question 9 of 85

A company is evaluating its data storage options. They need a solution that provides them with the highest level of control over their hardware, software, and network configurations, allowing for customized security controls and measures. Which deployment model would best suit their needs?

Question 10 of 85

A new technology firm recently launched a device that uses facial recognition for authentication. A cybersecurity researcher, without any malicious intent, demonstrated a method to bypass the facial recognition using a photograph. The researcher then approached the firm with the findings without publicizing it. The company pays the researcher $5,000 for this information. What is the primary motivation behind the researcher’s action?

Question 11 of 85

A company recently adopted a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. The IT department is concerned about the potential risks associated with personal devices accessing the corporate network. Which of the following solutions would be MOST effective for enforcing security policies on these personal mobile devices?

Question 12 of 85

A software development company recently experienced a major data breach that was traced back to a vulnerability in their custom-built application. Post-incident analysis revealed that the vulnerability had been introduced during the coding phase and was never detected during testing. To avoid such vulnerabilities in the future, which policy should they emphasize to ensure secure practices are maintained throughout the development process?

Question 13 of 85

A high-profile executive received an email containing a link for the executive to click on and transfer money to a cryptocurrency account. What is the best description of this type of attack?

Question 14 of 85

A software development team in a large corporation decided to use an unauthorized cloud-based tool to host and manage their source code. The team believed it would increase their productivity, even though it was not approved by the IT department. A few weeks later, unauthorized access to their project data was detected. Which concept BEST describes the cause of this situation?

Question 15 of 85

A financial institution has experienced an increase in unauthorized transactions. They want to implement a control that will allow them to identify suspicious transactions in real time. Which of the following would be the BEST detective control for this scenario?

Question 16 of 85

A company is in the process of outlining a strategy to ensure that after any disaster, critical applications can be restored to a working state within 4 hours. The organization also wants to make sure that the data loss does not exceed 1 hour. Which of the following policies is most relevant to achieving this objective?

Question 17 of 85

A large financial institution is planning to upgrade its IT infrastructure to allow for a more efficient use of hardware resources, faster deployment of applications, and reduced server provisioning times. While evaluating different technologies, which of the following would directly address these needs?

Question 18 of 85

James receives an email prompting him to verify his identity by clicking on a link. The link directs him to a webpage where he has to provide his username, password, and a six-digit Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) from an app. What type of authentication method is being employed here?

Question 19 of 85

An online banking website employs a system that automatically logs out users after 10 minutes of inactivity to ensure that if a user forgets to log out, no one else can steal the user's authentication tokens or cookies. Which type of attack is this attempting to prevent?

Question 20 of 85

A software development company is looking to migrate its legacy applications to a more modern infrastructure. They want to ensure the applications can be deployed consistently across multiple environments without the challenges of varying dependencies and configurations. Which standard would best help them to achieve this goal?

Question 21 of 85

Your organization is implementing a new technology to protect users' passwords saved on an internal website. Which of the following is the BEST solution?

Question 22 of 85

A pharmaceutical company is concerned about competitors accessing their formula for a new drug. Which pillar of the CIA triad is MOST directly addressed by their concern?

Question 23 of 85

An online gaming platform experiences latency issues during multiplayer sessions, affecting the gameplay experience of its users. The company wants to ensure real-time responsiveness for its players worldwide. Which of the following solutions would BEST mitigate these latency issues?

Question 24 of 85

A startup company anticipates rapid growth in its user base over the next year. They are considering an architectural model for their application that can handle the projected growth without performance issues. Which of the following would be the BEST design consideration for this situation?

Question 25 of 85

A health tech company has developed an AI-driven software that predicts potential health risks based on patient data. Before launching in the U.S. market, which of the following industry external considerations should be the company’s primary focus?

Question 26 of 85

An e-commerce company has experienced a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which caused its website to become inaccessible for several hours. To mitigate the impact of such attacks in the future, which of the following would be the BEST corrective control to implement?

Question 27 of 85

A healthcare organization uses embedded systems in various medical devices. They are aware of the potential threats these systems can pose if not properly secured. Which of the following is NOT a recommended practice when hardening embedded systems in this context?

Question 28 of 85

A financial institution wants to ensure that customers are aware of the bank’s policies on information sharing and how their personal data is used. Which of the following security controls would BEST communicate this to customers?

Question 29 of 85

A company wishes to use a form of biometric authentication with extremely low rates of error. Security is the primary concern; the company is not concerned about cost or convenience. Which solution would best meet these needs?

Question 30 of 85

A company is migrating to cloud infrastructure and wants to ensure all virtual machines (VMs) are securely configured from the onset. Before deploying multiple VM instances, what should they do to ensure each VM starts from a secure configuration?

Question 31 of 85

A charity wants to protect user accounts from brute force attacks. They want to implement a measure where, after a certain number of failed login attempts, the account would become temporarily inaccessible. Which standard best suits this requirement?

Question 32 of 85

An energy company is looking to enhance the security of its ICS/SCADA systems. They have realized that default configurations might have vulnerabilities. Which of the following is the BEST initial step to take in securing their ICS/SCADA systems?

Question 33 of 85

The IT department wants to monitor network traffic in real time to detect any anomalies or malicious activities. Which of the following security controls can accomplish this?

Question 34 of 85

A company is located in an area prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Which of the following risk responses would be MOST effective?

Question 35 of 85

A network engineer is preparing a new batch of routers for deployment in a large organization. Which of the following steps should the engineer prioritize to ensure that the routers are securely configured from the start?

Question 36 of 85

A telecommunications company is planning to expand its infrastructure across Europe. The company is concerned about data breaches. Which piece of legislation should they adhere to as they begin their expansion?

Question 37 of 85

A medical company has recently deployed a device to monitor patient heart rates in real time. This device uses a real-time operating system (RTOS) to guarantee immediate response times. The security team is concerned about potential risks. Which of the following would be a KEY recommendation to enhance the security of such devices?

Question 38 of 85

A marketing company recently encountered a strange entry in the log files of their website: 'UNION+SELECT+NULL,ALL+FROM+PASSWORDS#--' Shortly after, the administrator account was breached. Which attack is most likely in use here?

Question 39 of 85

During an annual review, a company discovered that one of its critical systems had several unscheduled downtimes over the year. The CTO has recommended a move towards high availability architecture to address this. What is the PRIMARY concern when implementing high availability?

Question 40 of 85

In a cloud environment, which of the following matrices defines the shared responsibilities between the cloud provider and the customer for specific cloud service models?

Question 41 of 85

A multinational company is planning to issue company-owned mobile devices to its executives. Given the sensitivity of the data the executives handle, what hardening measure would be MOST effective to ensure the security of these mobile devices?

Question 42 of 85

A multinational company is deploying a new set of servers in its data centers across various countries. Which of the following steps should be taken FIRST to ensure the servers are secured against potential threats?

Question 43 of 85

During an incident response, the IT team discovers malware that collects information about military projects. Which of the following techniques ensures the integrity of the evidence they collect during the investigation?

Question 44 of 85

A large e-commerce platform is facing challenges during peak sale periods, where the influx of users causes slowdowns and occasional outages. Which of the following solutions would BEST improve scalability during these high-demand times?

Question 45 of 85

A large enterprise is considering a solution to detect and prevent employees who are sharing confidential files outside the organization's network via email. Which would be the best solution?

Question 46 of 85

An audit report indicates that several network switches in a data center lack security configurations, making them potential targets for attackers. Which of the following hardening techniques would BEST reduce the risk associated with these switches?

Question 47 of 85

An e-commerce platform reported a series of breaches over the past month. With each breach, financial and personal data of thousands of users were exfiltrated. The perpetrators subsequently sold the data on the dark web. Even when passwords are changed by the company, the attackers seem to figure out the new passwords and use them to reconnect. What is the most likely explanation?

Question 48 of 85

A company’s primary security control for accessing secure server rooms is a biometric fingerprint scanner. However, the scanner occasionally malfunctions. The security team is considering an alternative solution to grant access when the primary method fails. Which of the following would be the MOST appropriate compensating control?

Question 49 of 85

A medium-sized financial firm has noticed a series of unauthorized transactions moving funds from legitimate accounts to overseas locations. After investigating, it was found that a group was responsible for exploiting vulnerabilities in the firm’s transaction system. Which of the following threat actor types is most likely to be responsible?

Question 50 of 85

A government organization conducts a risk assessment every six months to identify new vulnerabilities and ensure that previous risk-mitigation strategies remain effective. When complete, they record the outcomes in a centralized database, along with the name of the persons responsible for overseeing each risk. What is the name of this location?

Question 51 of 85

An e-commerce company recently faced a DDoS attack that rendered its website unavailable for several hours. While reflecting on the incident, the CISO emphasized the importance of having a detailed plan that includes identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned. Which policy primarily encompasses these stages for handling security incidents?

Question 52 of 85

A company operates two physical offices in two different countries. They wish to transfer data between both sites in a convenient way via the public internet while using strong encryption methods. What is the best solution?

Question 53 of 85

The network administrator of a rapidly growing tech firm is concerned about the potential vulnerabilities of the company’s switches. Which of the following measures is MOST effective in hardening these network switches against possible attacks?

Question 54 of 85

A developer at your company wishes to test the code quality and security of a software package WITHOUT running the application. Which is the best solution?

Question 55 of 85

Lisa, a security manager, is reviewing the company’s existing policies and realizes that there isn’t a comprehensive document detailing the organization’s approach to recording, cataloguing, and tracking devices like laptops and mobile phones. Which of the following should Lisa prioritize creating to address this gap?

Question 56 of 85

A fintech company checks its logs and becomes aware that an attacker has logged into the Global Administrator account without knowing the valid plaintext password. They sent another form of authentication credentials directly to the Kerberos authentication backend. Which attack has taken place?

Question 57 of 85

In a microservices architecture, each service should be designed with a specific principle to ensure it performs a specific task and interacts with other services through well-defined interfaces. What principle is this referring to?

Question 58 of 85

A company is in the process of defining clear roles and responsibilities for their IT assets. During a meeting, the team discussed the primary individual who will have the responsibility for the data within a specific IT system and also be the main point of contact for any decisions related to it. Which of the following roles best describes this individual?

Question 59 of 85

An organization with a single physical network infrastructure wants to separate the traffic of its finance department from that of the HR department. They do not want to set up entirely new physical networks but want to ensure that data packets from one department do not mix with the other’s. What should the organization implement?

Question 60 of 85

A medium-sized company wishes to ensure that the public can access its website from the internet, allowing them to buy products, but that attackers cannot enter the company network. They add an additional firewall behind the web server that does not permit inbound traffic beyond the website. What is this concept?

Question 61 of 85

A global corporation has undergone several IT incidents in the past year, including outages due to natural disasters and cyber attacks. The CEO wants to ensure the organization’s IT infrastructure can withstand or rapidly recover from disruptive events. Which of the following best encapsulates this requirement?

Question 62 of 85

A company has faced multiple instances of unauthorized individuals gaining access to their office premises. Which of the following preventive security controls would be MOST effective in preventing unauthorized physical access?

Question 63 of 85

After detecting an unauthorized intrusion into their network, a financial institution wants to implement a control that will restore compromised VMs to a known good state. Which of the following would be the MOST appropriate corrective control?

Question 64 of 85

An organization that processes classified information is implementing a network infrastructure to ensure the highest level of data security. The CISO recommends using a network configuration that ensures the system remains completely disconnected from unsecured networks and any external connections. Which of the following describes this type of configuration?

Question 65 of 85

A small business wishes to use a secure form of encryption to protect their devices. They do not wish to spend too much money, but the CISO notes that their laptops are already equipped with TPM chips. Given this information, what is the best solution?

Question 66 of 85

To discourage potential cybercriminals from targeting their online storefront, an e-commerce company is considering various security measures. Which of the following would act MOST effectively as a deterrent control?

Question 67 of 85

A system administrator is setting up an authentication system for a new web application. Which of the following security controls falls under the technical category and ensures that users prove their identity before gaining access?

Question 68 of 85

A leading software development company recently found their website hacked and replaced with offensive messages. When examining the Apache logs, they discover the following entry: < \script>window.location.href="https://evil dot com/malware.js"<\ / script> Based on this, which attack technique was used?

Question 69 of 85

A digital forensics analyst seizes a laptop and needs to record the date and time they took physical control over the device. Which is the most appropriate document to use?

Question 70 of 85

An e-commerce company is preparing for an upcoming Black Friday sale, expecting a surge in web traffic. To ensure their systems remain responsive during the sale, which of the following would be the MOST effective strategy to implement?

Question 71 of 85

A company employee wishes to access an accounting portal. However, she works in the software development department. The system denies access with a message that she does not have a valid reason to access the content in the accounting portal. Which access control model is most likely in use here?

Question 72 of 85

During a routine check, the IT department discovered that several employees had left their computers on and unattended during lunch break. Which operational security control can help mitigate the risk associated with this behavior?

Question 73 of 85

A retail company recently suffered a breach where attackers encrypted all point-of-sale systems, rendering them unusable. An email note was then received, demanding payment in cryptocurrency to decrypt the systems. What type of malware was in use?

Question 74 of 85

In an effort to minimize data breaches, a company proactively looks for Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) across its network, even when no attack is currently happening. What is the description for this activity?

Question 75 of 85

A company experiencing a breach has issued a directive to switch to OOB communications. What is the primary purpose of this?

Question 76 of 85

A company currently has an external firewall as its only security control protecting their infrastructure. They wish to implement a new concept of network design that is more secure. Which is the best approach?

Question 77 of 85

A government agency signs an agreement with a Cloud Service Provider that states the level of performance expected of the CSP, and lists financial penalties if the CSP fails to meet these expectations. What is this document?

Question 78 of 85

During a company’s onboarding process, new employees are required to read and acknowledge understanding of various company policies. The HR department wants to ensure that employees are aware of their responsibilities when it comes to the use of company devices and internet resources. Which policy should be included in the onboarding packet to address this?

Question 79 of 85

An employee recently left an organization and discovered they could still access their VPN account into the company's network. Which critical process was most likely forgotten?

Question 80 of 85

A Chief Technology Officer (CTO) has asked a systems engineer to provide a metric that explains how long it will take to fix a system when it is damaged. What is this metric?

Question 81 of 85

Following this, the CTO then asks the systems engineer if they have data explaining how often the device breaks, on average, in each year. What is this metric?

Question 82 of 85

A SOC analyst detects a valid login in London. Shortly afterwards, withn 20 seconds, the same account is logged into from Tokyo. The analyst makes a note on the ticket that these cities are thousands of miles apart. Which situation is the analyst MOST likely referring to?

Question 83 of 85

The finance department of a global corporation found a series of unauthorized transactions originating from an employee’s workstation. Investigations revealed that the employee had been bypassing company policies to make unauthorized investments using company funds. No additional controls or checks were being performed on the employee's actions. Which of the following managerial controls would best address this situation?

Question 84 of 85

A company wishes to install a device that will allow them to control what websites employees can access, to stop them playing video games while at work, while causing minimal disruption to legitimate web traffic. What is the BEST solution?

Question 85 of 85

A company is concerned that its existing network security appliances, including IPS and NGFW, do not adequately protect it against anomalous employee behaviour, like stealing large quantities of files. Which is the best solution to recommend?