Pass the CompTIA CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Questions and answers with CertsForce

A honeypot is a security mechanism set up to attract and detect potential attackers by simulating vulnerable assets. By hosting a part of the infrastructure online with known vulnerabilities that appear to be company assets, the company can observe and analyze the behavior of attackersconducting reconnaissance. This approach allows the company to get alerts and gather intelligence on potential threats.

References = CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 study materials, particularly on threat detection techniques such as honeypots​​.

Detective controls (such as audit logs, monitoring, and alerts) are specifically designed to identify and reveal unauthorized or malicious activity, including insider manipulation, in systems like payroll. These controls help ensure that any attempts to manipulate data are discovered and investigated.

IPS stands for intrusion prevention system, which is a network security device that monitors and blocks malicious traffic in real time. IPS is different from IDS, which only detects and alerts on malicious traffic, but does not block it. IPS would have mitigated the spread of ransomware by preventing the hacker from accessing the system via the phishing link, or by stopping the ransomware from communicating with its command and control server or encrypting the files.

Detailed Explanation:

Corrective controls, such as auditing and versioning, help prevent unauthorized changes to financial data, ensuring data integrity and compliance with regulations. Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Study Guide, Domain 5: Security Program Management, Section: "Controls for Financial Systems"​​.

ATabletop exercise (D)is adiscussion-based simulationof an incident scenario. It allows security teams towalk through procedures, responsibilities, and communicationsin alow-pressure environment, improving readiness without impacting operations.

It is specifically designed toprepare teams for real-world incident handling.

Cyber insurance is a type of insurance that covers the financial losses and liabilities that result from cyberattacks, such as data breaches, ransomware, denial-of-service, phishing, or malware. Cyber insurance can help a company recover from the costs of restoring data, repairing systems, paying ransoms, compensating customers, or facing legal actions. Cyber insurance is one of the possible strategies that a company can use to address the items listed on the risk register. A riskregister is a document that records the identified risks, their probability, impact, and mitigation strategies for a project or an organization. The four common risk mitigation strategies are:

Accept: The company acknowledges the risk and decides to accept the consequences without taking any action to reduce or eliminate the risk. This strategy is usually chosen when the risk is low or the cost of mitigation is too high.

Transfer: The company transfers the risk to a third party, such as an insurance company, a vendor, or a partner. This strategy is usually chosen when the risk is high or the company lacks the resources or expertise to handle the risk.

Mitigate: The company implements controls or measures to reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk. This strategy is usually chosen when the risk is moderate or the cost of mitigation is reasonable.

Avoid: The company eliminates the risk by changing the scope, plan, or design of the project or the organization. This strategy is usually chosen when the risk is unacceptable or the cost of mitigation is too high.

By purchasing cyber insurance, the company is transferring the risk to the insurance company, which will cover the financial losses and liabilities in case of a cyberattack. Therefore, the correct answer is B. Transfer. References = CompTIA Security+ Study Guide (SY0-701), Chapter 8: Governance, Risk, and Compliance, page 377. Professor Messer’s CompTIA SY0-701 Security+ Training Course, Section 8.1: Risk Management, video: Risk Mitigation Strategies (5:37).

 A business email compromise (BEC) attack is a type of phishing attack that targets employees who have access to company funds or sensitive information. The attacker impersonates a trusted person, such as an executive, a vendor, or a client, and requests a fraudulent payment, a wire transfer, or confidential data. The attacker often uses social engineering techniques, such as urgency, pressure, or familiarity, to convince the victim to comply with the request12.

In this scenario, option A describes a possible BEC attack, where an employee receives a gift card request in an email that has an executive’s name in the display field of the email. The email may look like it is coming from the executive, but the actual email address may be spoofed or compromised. The attacker may claim that the gift cards are needed for a business purpose, such as rewarding employees or clients, and ask the employee to purchase them and send the codes. This is a common tactic used by BEC attackers to steal money from unsuspecting victims34.

Option B describes a possible ransomware attack, where malicious software encrypts the files on a device and demands a ransom for the decryption key. Option C describes a possible credential harvesting attack, where an attacker tries to obtain the login information of a privileged account by posing as a legitimate authority. Option D describes a possible phishing attack, where an attacker tries to lure the victim to a fake website that mimics the company’s email portal and capture their credentials. These are all types of cyberattacks, but they are not examples of BEC attacks. References = 1: Business Email Compromise - CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 - 2.2 2: CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Certification Study Guide 3: Business Email Compromise: The 12 Billion Dollar Scam 4: TOTAL: CompTIA Security+ Cert (SY0-701) | Udemy

A web filter is a device or software that can monitor, block, or allow web traffic based on predefined rules or policies. One of the common methods of web filtering is to scan the URL for strings and deny access when matches are found. For example, a web filter can block access to websites that contain the words “gambling”, “porn”, or “malware” in their URLs. A URL is a uniform resource locator that identifies the location and protocol of a web resource. A URL typically consists of the following components: protocol://domain:port/path?query#fragment.The protocol specifies the communication method used to access the web resource, such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, or SMTP. The domain is the name of the web server that hosts the web resource, such as www.google.com or www.bing.com. The port is an optional number that identifies the specific service or application running on the web server, such as 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS. The path is the specific folder or file name of the web resource, such as /index.html or /images/logo.png. The query is an optional string that contains additional information or parameters for the web resource, such as ?q=security or ?lang=en. The fragment is an optional string that identifies a specific part or section of the web resource, such as #introduction or #summary.

To prohibit access to non-encrypted websites, an analyst should employ a search string that matches the protocol of non-encrypted web traffic, which is HTTP. HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol, and it is a standard protocol for transferring data between web servers and web browsers. However, HTTP does not provide any encryption or security for the data, which means that anyone who intercepts the web traffic can read or modify the data. Therefore, non-encrypted websites are vulnerable to eavesdropping, tampering, or spoofing attacks. To access a non-encrypted website, the URL usually starts with http://, followed by the domain name and optionally the port number. For example, http://www.example.com or http://www.example.com:80. By scanning the URL for the string http://, the web filter can identify and block non-encrypted websites.

The other options are not correct because they do not match the protocol of non-encrypted web traffic. Encryption=off is a possible query string that indicates the encryption status of the web resource, but it is not a standard or mandatory parameter. Https:// is the protocol of encrypted web traffic, which uses hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) to provide encryption and security for the data. Www.*.com is a possible domain name that matches any website that starts with www and ends with .com, but it does not specify the protocol. :443 is the port number of HTTPS, which is the protocol of encrypted web traffic. References = CompTIA Security+ Study Guide (SY0-701), Chapter 2: Securing Networks, page 69. Professor Messer’s CompTIA SY0-701 Security+ Training Course, Section 2.1: Network Devices and Technologies, video: Web Filter (5:16).

"Network segmentation is a security practice that divides a network into smaller, isolated segments to limit access and reduce the attack surface. Firewalls are commonly used to enforce segmentation by creating rules that allow or deny traffic based on source, destination, and port. Tomeet compliance requirements, such as restricting access to internal servers, firewall rules can be configured to block all external traffic while permitting only authorized internal systems to communicate with the segmented servers. This ensures that sensitive resources are isolated from unauthorized access."

An endpoint detection and response (EDR) system is a security tool that monitors and analyzes the activities and behaviors of endpoints, such as computers, laptops, mobile devices, and servers. An EDR system can detect, prevent, and respond to various types of threats, such as malware, ransomware, phishing, and advanced persistent threats (APTs). One of the features of an EDR system is to block the automatic execution of downloaded programs, which can prevent malicious code from running on the endpoint when a user clicks on a link in a phishing message. This can reduce the impact of a phishing attack and protect the endpoint from compromise. Updating the EDR policies to block automatic execution of downloaded programs is a technical control that can mitigate the risk of phishing, regardless of the user’s awareness or behavior. Therefore, this is the best answer among the given options.

The other options are not as effective as updating the EDR policies, because they rely on administrative or physical controls that may not be sufficient to prevent or stop a phishing attack. Placing posters around the office to raise awareness of common phishing activities is a physical control that can increase the user’s knowledge of phishing, but it may not change their behavior or prevent them from clicking on a link in a phishing message. Implementing email security filters to prevent phishing emails from being delivered is an administrative control that can reduce the exposure to phishing, but it may not be able to block all phishing emails, especially if they are crafted to bypass the filters. Creating additional training for users to recognize the signs of phishing attempts is an administrative control that can improve the user’s skills of phishing detection, but it may not guarantee that they will always be vigilant or cautious when receiving an email. Therefore, these options are not the best answer for this question. References = Endpoint Detection and Response – CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 – 2.2, video at 5:30; CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Certification Study Guide, page 163.

Detailed Explanation:Access control lists (ACLs) allow administrators to fine-tune file permissions by specifying which users or groups have access to a file and defining the level of access. Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Study Guide, Domain 3: Security Architecture, Section: "Access Control Mechanisms"​​.

The log entries show repeated attempts to access directories using patterns such as ../, which is a common directory traversal attack technique. Directory traversal (or path traversal) aims to access files and directories outside the web server's root directory by manipulating file paths. The ../ sequence is used to move up one directory level, which attackers exploit to try and retrieve sensitive files.