Book Image

CompTIA Security+: SY0-601 Certification Guide - Second Edition

By : Ian Neil
Book Image

CompTIA Security+: SY0-601 Certification Guide - Second Edition

By: Ian Neil

Overview of this book

The CompTIA Security+ certification validates the fundamental knowledge required to perform core security functions and pursue a career in IT security. Authored by Ian Neil, a world-class CompTIA certification trainer, this book is a best-in-class study guide that fully covers the CompTIA Security+ 601 exam objectives. Complete with chapter review questions, realistic mock exams, and worked solutions, this guide will help you master the core concepts to pass the exam the first time you take it. With the help of relevant examples, you'll learn fundamental security concepts from certificates and encryption to identity and access management (IAM). As you progress, you'll delve into the important domains of the exam, including cloud security, threats, attacks and vulnerabilities, technologies and tools, architecture and design, risk management, cryptography, and public key infrastructure (PKI). You can access extra practice materials, including flashcards, performance-based questions, practical labs, mock exams, key terms glossary, and exam tips on the author's website at securityplus.training. By the end of this Security+ book, you'll have gained the knowledge and understanding to take the CompTIA exam with confidence.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Objectives for the CompTIA Security+ 601 exam
Free Chapter
2
Section 1: Security Aims and Objectives
7
Section 2: Monitoring the Security Infrastructure
12
Section 3: Protecting the Security Environment
17
Section 4: Mock Tests
18
Chapter 13: Mock Exam 1
19
Mock Exam 1 Solutions
20
Chapter 14: Mock Exam 2
21
Mock Exam 2 Solutions

Key Stretching Algorithms

Key stretching is where you append a random set of characters to a password to increase the size of the password and its hash, ensuring that a brute-force attack needs more compute time to crack the password.

  • BCRYPT: BCRYPT is a password-hashing algorithm based on the Blowfish cipher. It is used to salt the passwords. A random string is appended to the password to increase the password length to help increase the compute time for a brute-force attack.
  • PBKDF2: PBKDF2 stores passwords with a random salt and with the password hash using HMAC. It then iterates, which forces the regeneration of every password and prevents any rainbow table attack. A rainbow table is a list of passwords and their corresponding hash.

    Tip

    Symmetric encryption is used to encrypt large amounts of data as they have small, fast keys and use block ciphers.