CompTIA Security+ SY0-501
CompTIA Security + SY0-501 exam practice questions for the CompTIA Security + SY0-501 exam for international qualifications that assess the performance of the fastest-growing security technicians in the IT industry.
Set · 2026-10
A vulnerability scanner finds many issues, but one affects an Internet-facing service, is actively exploited, and exposes sensitive data. What should guide prioritization?
Questions & review
Original, independent study material. This is not an official exam paper.
The exam code in this catalog entry is retired. This 2026-10 set reviews foundational concepts; it does not claim alignment with a current replacement exam blueprint.
20 questions on this page
A vulnerability scanner finds many issues, but one affects an Internet-facing service, is actively exploited, and exposes sensitive data. What should guide prioritization?
How does a penetration test differ most directly from a routine vulnerability scan?
A security team wants to correlate authentication failures from many hosts and alert on suspicious patterns. Which platform is designed for this purpose?
An endpoint detection system identifies a process encrypting large numbers of files unexpectedly. What is an appropriate initial response under the incident plan?
Why should responders record every transfer of a collected evidence drive?
An organization can tolerate losing no more than 15 minutes of transaction data after an outage. Which recovery target describes this limit?
A service must be restored within two hours after a major outage. Which target is being specified?
Which backup design best reduces the risk that ransomware encrypts both production data and every recovery copy?
A company buys cyber insurance to cover part of the financial consequences of a specified incident. Which risk treatment does this represent?
A business impact analysis identifies critical activities and the consequences of their disruption. What is its primary use?
A supplier will process sensitive customer data. What should the customer assess before granting access?
A dataset replaces names with codes, but a separate lookup table can reconnect each code to a person. What is this technique?
An audit finds that terminated employees retain active accounts. Which process should be improved most directly?
A forged message asks an employee to enter credentials on a lookalike website. Which attack is described?
Which authentication factor is represented by a hardware security key?
What does salting a password hash primarily prevent?
Which control most directly reduces the impact of a compromised ordinary account?
Which technology checks traffic against known malicious patterns and can alert on matches?
What is the main difference between a vulnerability scan and penetration testing?
Which measure helps prevent a browser from sending a session cookie over an unencrypted HTTP connection?