CompTIA Security+ SY0-501

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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?

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2026-10 · 53 practice questions with explanations

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
  1. A vulnerability scanner finds many issues, but one affects an Internet-facing service, is actively exploited, and exposes sensitive data. What should guide prioritization?

  2. How does a penetration test differ most directly from a routine vulnerability scan?

  3. A security team wants to correlate authentication failures from many hosts and alert on suspicious patterns. Which platform is designed for this purpose?

  4. An endpoint detection system identifies a process encrypting large numbers of files unexpectedly. What is an appropriate initial response under the incident plan?

  5. Why should responders record every transfer of a collected evidence drive?

  6. An organization can tolerate losing no more than 15 minutes of transaction data after an outage. Which recovery target describes this limit?

  7. A service must be restored within two hours after a major outage. Which target is being specified?

  8. Which backup design best reduces the risk that ransomware encrypts both production data and every recovery copy?

  9. A company buys cyber insurance to cover part of the financial consequences of a specified incident. Which risk treatment does this represent?

  10. A business impact analysis identifies critical activities and the consequences of their disruption. What is its primary use?

  11. A supplier will process sensitive customer data. What should the customer assess before granting access?

  12. A dataset replaces names with codes, but a separate lookup table can reconnect each code to a person. What is this technique?

  13. An audit finds that terminated employees retain active accounts. Which process should be improved most directly?

  14. A forged message asks an employee to enter credentials on a lookalike website. Which attack is described?

  15. Which authentication factor is represented by a hardware security key?

  16. What does salting a password hash primarily prevent?

  17. Which control most directly reduces the impact of a compromised ordinary account?

  18. Which technology checks traffic against known malicious patterns and can alert on matches?

  19. What is the main difference between a vulnerability scan and penetration testing?

  20. Which measure helps prevent a browser from sending a session cookie over an unencrypted HTTP connection?

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