CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Exam Preparation Vocabulary

A comprehensive vocabulary list covering security principles, attack types, control categories, and technical standards derived from the SY0-701 certification notes.

Risk Transfer

A risk management strategy that involves shifting the financial impact of a potential loss to a third party, such as by purchasing cyber insurance.

Risk Register

A document used to record and track identified risks, including responsible parties, thresholds, and potential impacts.

Shadow IT

The use of unapproved applications, devices, or software within an organization without the knowledge or approval of the internal IT department.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

An agreement type that specifies performance metrics, escalation points, and the time frame in which a vendor needs to respond to service issues.

Deterrent Control

A type of security control designed to discourage unauthorized actions or potential attackers, such as posted signs or perimeter fencing.

False Positive

An instance where a vulnerability scan or security alert incorrectly identifies a vulnerability or threat that is not actually present on a system.

Port Security

A network security feature that limits access to an Ethernet port based on MAC addresses to mitigate attacks like MAC address table flooding.

Jailbreaking

The process of removing a manufacturer's software restrictions on a smartphone to install unauthorized software and enable new features.

Lessons Learned

The phase of incident response that involves conducting a post-incident review to determine the root cause and identify process improvements.

RADIUS

A networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) management for users connecting to a network.

Cold Site

A low-cost disaster recovery location that provides office space and basic connectivity but requires the installation of hardware and data before operations can resume.

Red Team

The security team responsible for simulating an attacker's perspective to determine if a company's systems can be exploited.

DNS Sinkhole

A technology used to intercept and redirect network traffic destined for known-malicious domains.

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language)

An open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between an Identity Provider and a Service Provider, commonly used for SSO.

On-Path Attack

A man-in-the-middle attack where an attacker intercepts communication between two parties to steal credentials or sensitive data.

Residual Risk

The risk that remains in an environment after security controls and mitigating factors have been implemented.

Code Obfuscation

A technique used to make software source code difficult for humans to understand or reverse-engineer while maintaining original functionality.

Volatile Data

Information that is lost when a device is powered off, such as the contents of RAM, which should be collected first during digital forensics.

MITRE ATT&CK

A real-world knowledge base of adversary behaviors used by security administrators to harden systems and apply mitigations.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

European Union legislation that addresses individual rights such as the right to be informed, right of access, and the right to be forgotten.

Key Escrow

A method of securely storing encryption keys with a trusted third party to ensure multiple authorized entities can access them as needed.

Bollards

Short, sturdy vertical posts used as a preventive physical security control to block vehicle access to a facility while allowing foot traffic.

UBA (User Behavior Analytics)

A security capability used to detect unusual or unauthorized access patterns by employees that deviate from their normal job duties.

Data Sovereignty

The concept that data stored outside of its country of origin is still subject to the laws and requirements of the originating country.

Whaling

A targeted social engineering attack using electronic messaging aimed specifically at high-level executives such as a CEO.

Honeypot

A decoy system or network resource designed to attract and analyze attacker behavior and techniques.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System)

A standardized framework used to determine the numerical severity score and prioritize the remediation of vulnerabilities.

Quishing

A threat vector where attackers use two-dimensional matrix barcodes (QR codes) to lead users to malicious URLs.

Pull-printing

An LDAP-authenticated printing process that prevents confidential documents from being left unattended by releasing the job only when the user is at the copier.

Gamification

A security awareness technique that uses incentives, such as rewards for not clicking phishing links, to reinforce desired security behaviors.

VM Escape

An exploit where an attacker breaks out of a virtual machine to interact directly with the underlying hypervisor or host system.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

A preferred architecture model that allows configuration to be precisely managed, replicated, and standardized through machine-readable files.

Right to be Forgotten

A privacy regulation principle (also known as right of erasure) allowing individuals to request the permanent deletion of their personal data.

Salting

A cryptographic process that appends a unique random value to a password before hashing so that identical passwords produce different resulting hashes.

Race Condition

A vulnerability that occurs when an attacker exploits the timing window between operations to alter system logic or gain unauthorized access.