CompTIA Security+: Security Goals & Controls

What does the CIA triad stand for?

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

What is the purpose of confidentiality?

To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure of information.

What does confidentiality protect against?

Unauthorized viewing, access, or disclosure of data.

What are the three states of data that confidentiality protects?

Data at rest, data in transit, and data in use.

What security technology is commonly used to provide confidentiality?

Encryption (cryptography).

What types of information require confidentiality protection?

Passwords, cryptographic keys, PII, PHI, intellectual property, and sensitive business data.

What is PII?

Personally Identifiable Information.

What is PHI?

Protected Health Information.

What is an example of confidentiality protection using networking?

IPsec VPN or mutual TLS (mTLS).

What encryption method is commonly used to protect data at rest?

AES encryption.

What is integrity?

Ensuring data is accurate, complete, and has not been altered without authorization.

What does integrity protect against?

Unauthorized modification or destruction of data.

What does integrity verify about data?

That it has not been changed or corrupted.

What security mechanism is commonly used to verify integrity?

Hashing.

What is a checksum used for?

To verify that data has not changed during transfer or copying.

What is an HMAC?

A Hash-based Message Authentication Code used to verify message integrity and authenticity.

What access control models support integrity protection?

Biba and Clark-Wilson models.

What security goal does the Biba model focus on?

Integrity.

What is availability?

Ensuring systems and data are accessible when authorized users need them.

What is high availability (HA)?

A failover capability that keeps systems running during failures.

What attacks commonly impact availability?

DoS, DDoS, flooding, poisoning, and resource exhaustion attacks.

What resources can attackers consume to impact availability?

Bandwidth, memory, CPU cycles, and power.

What security solutions help maintain availability?

Firewalls, IDS/IPS, antivirus, endpoint protection, and failover clusters.

What is a warm site?

A disaster recovery location that is partially prepared and requires additional setup before use.

What is disaster recovery planning designed to protect?

Business operations after disruptions or disasters.

What is non-repudiation?

The ability to prove that someone performed an action and cannot deny it later.

What is the opposite of non-repudiation?

Repudiation.

What does non-repudiation prevent a user from claiming?

"I did not perform this transaction or communication."

What technology provides non-repudiation in cybersecurity?

Digital signatures using public/private key cryptography.

What is an example of non-repudiation outside of technology?

A handwritten signature on a legal document.

How do digital signatures provide non-repudiation?

They use a user's private key to sign data, proving ownership and authenticity.

What does AAA stand for?

Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.

What is authentication?

Verifying that a user, device, or system is who they claim to be.

What is authorization?

Determining what an authenticated entity is allowed to access.

What is accounting?

Tracking activity, usage, start/end times, and actions performed.

What is the difference between authentication and authorization?

Authentication proves identity; authorization determines permissions.

What are the two AAA modes?

Character mode and packet mode.

What is character mode AAA used for?

Administrative access to configure a device.

What is packet mode AAA used for?

Authenticating users accessing network services.

Give an example of character mode AAA.

An administrator logging into a router to change configuration settings.

Give an example of packet mode AAA.

A user accessing a web server through a firewall or authentication proxy.

What AAA protocol is known for strong accounting capabilities?

RADIUS.

What is DIAMETER?

The next-generation replacement for RADIUS.

What is something you know?

A password, PIN, or passphrase.

What is something you have?

A smart card, token, USB key, or certificate.

What is something you are?

A biometric factor such as a fingerprint or iris scan.

Why is multi-factor authentication recommended?

It requires multiple authentication factors, improving security.