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Thanks are also due to Jeff Kellum, one of the best acquisitions editors in the business, and all of those at Wiley Publishing who worked on this title.

About the Author

Emmett Dulaney is a professor at Anderson University and the former director of training for Mercury Technical Solutions. He is a columnist for CertCities and the author of over 30 books on certification and cross-platform integration. Emmett can be reached at eadulaney@comcast.net.

Introduction

If you’re preparing to take the Security+ exam, you’ll undoubtedly want to find as much information as you can concerning computer and physical security. The more information you have at your disposal and the more hands-on experience you gain, the better off you’ll be when attempting the exam. This study guide was written with that in mind. The goal was to provide enough information to prepare you for the test, but not so much that you’ll be overloaded with information that’s outside the scope of the exam.

This book presents the material at an intermediate technical level. Experience with and understanding of security concepts, operating systems, and application systems will help you get a full understanding of the challenges you face as a security professional.

I’ve included review questions at the end of each chapter to give you a taste of what it’s like to take the exam. If you’re already working in the security field, I recommend that you check out these questions first to gauge your level of expertise. You can then use the book mainly to fill in the gaps in your current knowledge. This study guide will help you round out your knowledge base before tackling the exam.

If you can answer 90 percent or more of the review questions correctly for a given chapter, you can feel safe moving on to the next chapter. If you’re unable to answer that many correctly, reread the chapter and try the questions again. Your score should improve.

Don’t just study the questions and answers! The questions on the actual exam will be different from the practice questions included in this book and on the CD. The exam is designed to test your knowledge of a concept or objective, so use this book to learn the objectives behind the questions.

Before You Begin

Before you begin studying for the exam, it’s imperative that you understand a few things about the Security+ certification. Security+ is a certification for life from CompTIA (an industry association responsible for many entry-level certifications) granted to those who obtain a passing score on a single entry-level exam. In addition to adding Security+ to your resume as a stand-alone certification, you can use it as an elective in many vendor-certification tracks.

When you’re studying for any exam, the first step in preparation should always be to find out as much as possible about the test; the more you know up front, the better you can plan your course of study. The current exam, and the one this book is written for, is the 2008 update. While all variables are subject to change, as this book is being written, the exam consists of 100 questions. You have 90 minutes to take the exam, and the passing score is based on a scale from 100 to 900. Both Pearson VUE and Prometric testing centers administer the exam throughout the United States and several other countries.

The exam is multiple choice with short, terse questions followed by four possible answers. Don’t expect lengthy scenarios and complex solutions. This is an entry-level exam of knowledge-level topics; you’re expected to know a great deal about security topics from an overview perspective rather than implementation. In many books, the glossary is filler added to the back of the text; this book’s glossary should be considered necessary reading. You’re likely to see a question on the exam about what a Trojan horse is, not how to identify it at the code level. Spend your study time learning the different security solutions and identifying potential security vulnerabilities