Book Image

CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide

By : Ian Neil
Book Image

CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide

By: Ian Neil

Overview of this book

CompTIA Security+ is a worldwide certification that establishes the fundamental knowledge required to perform core security functions and pursue an IT security career. CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide is a best-in-class exam study guide that covers all of CompTIA Security+ 501 exam objectives. It is authored by Ian Neil, who is a world-class trainer of CompTIA Security+ 501. Packed with self-assessment scenarios and realistic exam questions, this guide will help you master the core concepts to succeed in the exam the first time you take it. Using relevant examples, you will learn all the important security fundamentals from Certificates and Encryption to Identity and Access Management concepts. You will then dive into the important domains of the exam; namely, threats, attacks and vulnerabilities, technologies and tools, architecture and design, risk management, and cryptography and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). This book comes with over 600 practice questions with detailed explanation that is at the exam level and also includes two mock exams to help you with your study plan. This guide will ensure that encryption and certificates are made easy for you.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
12
Mock Exam 1
13
Mock Exam 2
15
Acronyms

Asymmetric and Symmetric Encryption

There are two main types of encryption that use certificates, and these are asymmetric and symmetric; we need to learn about each thoroughly. Let's start by explaining what encryption is; please remember that you are taking plaintext and changing it into ciphertext.

Encryption Explained

Encryption is where we take plaintext that can be easily read and convert it into ciphertext that cannot be easily read. For example, if we take the word pass in plaintext, it may then be converted to UDVV; this way, it is difficult to understand:

  • Substitution Cipher: Julius Caesar, who died in 44 BC, invented the first substitution cipher, where he moved each letter of the alphabet three places one...