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Security+ glossary

Plain-language definitions of key CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) terms, organized by exam domain. New terms are added regularly.

Core concepts

Gap analysis Zero Trust Control plane and data plane Adaptive identity Access control vestibule Preventive and detective controls Honeypot Change management

Cryptography

Symmetric encryption Asymmetric encryption Hashing Salt Hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) Digital signature Diffie-Hellman key exchange Digital certificate Trusted platform module (TPM) Hardware security module (HSM) Secure enclave Key escrow Online certificate status protocol (OCSP) Certificate pinning Downgrade attack

Threat actors and vectors

Insider threat Advanced persistent threat (APT) Threat actor attributes Threat actor motivation Double extortion ransomware Social engineering Phishing Watering hole attack Watering hole Typosquatting (registering similar domains) Business email compromise (BEC) Smishing (SMS phishing) Pretexting (fabricated scenario)

Malware and malicious activity

Virus and worm Trojan horse and Remote Access Trojan (RAT) Rootkit Ransomware Logic bomb Denial-of-Service and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DoS/DDoS) On-path / MITM attack and evil twin Indicator of compromise (IoC) Pass-the-hash Golden ticket Command and control (C2) Beaconing (periodic check-in)

Defense techniques

Network segmentation Demilitarized zone (DMZ) Air gap Least privilege Separation of duties (SoD) Allow list Hardening Endpoint detection and response (EDR) Honeytoken (decoy data)

Architecture and infrastructure

Shared responsibility model High availability and durability (HA) Risk transference Vertical and horizontal scaling Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Serverless architecture Containerization and virtualization Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Microsegmentation

Enterprise infrastructure

Demilitarized zone / screened subnet (DMZ) Jump server / bastion host Intrusion detection system / intrusion prevention system (IDS/IPS) Firewall Next-generation firewall (NGFW) Web application firewall (WAF) 802.1X port-based network access control Virtual private network / IPsec (VPN) Secure access service edge (SASE) EAP-TLS (EAP - Transport Layer Security) WPA3-SAE (simultaneous authentication of equals)

Security objectives and controls

CIA triad Non-repudiation Authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) Authentication factors Multi-factor authentication (MFA) Certificate-based authentication Authorization models Security control types

Enterprise security capabilities

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) Endpoint Detection and Response / Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR) User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) Network Access Control (NAC) File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Cloud access security broker (CASB)

Data protection

Data states Data classification Regulated data Personally identifiable information (PII) Protected health information (PHI) Data sovereignty Tokenization Data loss prevention (DLP)

Hardening and asset security

Secure baseline Asset management CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIG Mobile device management (MDM) Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Wireless security standards: WPA3 and WEP Site survey / heat map

Risk management

Risk Qualitative risk analysis Quantitative risk analysis Single loss expectancy (SLE) Annualized loss expectancy (ALE) Risk treatment strategies Risk appetite Risk register Business impact analysis (BIA)

Vulnerability management

Vulnerability scanning Penetration testing Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Zero-day vulnerability False positive / false negative Authenticated / unauthenticated scan Compensating control Race condition / TOCTOU Open-source intelligence (OSINT)

Monitoring and alerting

Security monitoring Agent-based vs. agentless monitoring Log aggregation Log archiving Security information and event management (SIEM) NetFlow Simple network management protocol (SNMP) Security content automation protocol (SCAP) Alert fatigue Alert tuning NetFlow (network flow analysis)

Automation and incident response

Automation Orchestration Incident response (IR) Containment and eradication Tabletop exercise Threat hunting Root cause analysis (RCA) Chain of custody Order of volatility Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) MITRE ATT&CK framework

Identity and access management (IAM)

Identity proofing Deprovisioning Phishing-resistant authentication Passwordless / passkey Single Sign-On (SSO) Identity Provider (IdP) Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Security governance

Security governance Policy Standard Procedure Guideline Acceptable use policy (AUP) Data owner and custodian Controller and processor

Compliance and third-party risk

Compliance Due diligence and due care Attestation Data subject Right to be forgotten (RTBF) Data minimization Third-party / vendor risk Right-to-audit clause Software bill of materials (SBOM)

Resilience and recovery

Single point of failure (SPOF) High availability (HA) Load balancing Clustering Disaster recovery (DR) Recovery sites: hot, warm, cold Geographic dispersion Continuity of operations (COOP)

Audits, assessments and awareness

Security audit Internal vs. external audit White, gray, black box pentest types Reconnaissance Red, blue, purple team Security awareness Phishing simulation and reporting Purple team
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