What's on the Security+ SY0‑801 exam
SY0-801 is Security+ V8: core security concepts and cryptography, threats and attacks including the risks of using AI, secure architecture, day-to-day security operations, and program oversight.
Scenariomarks the 9 objectives that ask you to apply a concept to a situation.
1.0 General Security Concepts
16% of the exam- 1.1Core security concepts, and the categories and types of controls
- 1.2How change management protects security, applied to real changesScenario
- 1.3Choosing the right cryptography: PKI, certificates, encryption, and hashing
2.0 Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks
24% of the exam- 2.1What makes a threat or vulnerability serious: intelligence, CVE, and CVSS
- 2.2Threat actors and what drives them
- 2.3Threat vectors, from phishing messages to the supply chain
- 2.4Vulnerability types and attack surfaces, including AI models and the cloud
- 2.5Reading the signs of malware, network, credential, and social engineering attacksScenario
- 2.6Threats that come with using AI
3.0 Security Architecture
19% of the exam- 3.1Security trade-offs of cloud, on-premises, OT, and air-gapped designs
- 3.2Managing the architecture: zones, Zero Trust, secure access, and identityScenario
- 3.3Protecting data: types, classifications, methods, and data roles
- 3.4Resilience and recovery: sites, redundancy, backups, and recovery metrics
4.0 Security Operations
27% of the exam- 4.1Putting controls in place, from hardening to firewalls and email securityScenario
- 4.2Tracking every asset, from purchase to disposal
- 4.3Running vulnerability management: find, prioritize, fix, verify, reportScenario
- 4.4How security monitoring and alerting work, and the tools behind them
- 4.5Identity and access management in practiceScenario
- 4.6Automation, orchestration, and AI in security operationsScenario
- 4.7Incident response, from preparation to post-incident review
- 4.8Using logs, captures, and other evidence in an investigationScenario
5.0 Security Program Management and Oversight
14% of the exam- 5.1Governance documents: policies, standards, procedures, and plans
- 5.2The risk management process
- 5.3Assessing and managing third-party risk
- 5.4Security compliance, privacy, and legal obligations
- 5.5Audits, assessments, penetration tests, and threat frameworks
- 5.6Running a security awareness programScenario
This is our plain-English overview of what the exam covers, in the blueprint's order. The official objectives document — with every sub-objective — is published by CompTIA.
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