I am new to the forums, but I just passed the Security Plus 401 with a score of a 800. Whoop whoop!
I took a class that was a month long then took a 5 day weekend off from work to study when class was over.
The class along with the following sources helped me pass:
Sybex CompTia Study Guide 6th Edition by Dulaney and Eastman. I honestly was not a fan at all of this book as I think it did a poor job addressing some of the concepts but what the class used
McGraw Hill CompTIA Security+ Certification Boxed Set. This helped ALOT. The book explains things very well and ensures you understand the concepts. They also have questions in the book and a simulator of the actual exam with a bunch of pool of questions. I definitely recommend this. If you pass the simulator repeatedly with a 85 percent or better you are ready. That is what I did.
CBT Nuggets Keith Barker does an excellent job explaining stuff
Professor Messer Security Plus Videos
InfoSec Institute CompTIA Security+ Performance Based Questions PDF helps you understand the way CompTIA sets up their simulations
I would not advise using brain **** unless it is for the simulations. Some of the simulations are absolutely ridiculous so brain **** can help with that.
I had 72 questions and like 9 yes 9
simulations
Know all about hash values and their bit sizes. What they are used for. Know about asymmetric and symmetric encryption. In and out. Their bit sizes for each and what they are used for.
Know about chain of custody and order of volatility.
Know how to configure a firewall
Know about the different types of raids and what they are used for.
Know about attack types and the CIA Triad.
Know how to handle a attack
Know that the most important part of implementing securing controls is TRAINING. You can invest in stuff all day but if your staff is clueless how to use it whats the point.
Know about blackbox, whitebox, and grey box hacking
Know about warm sites and hot sites
It said before I began like 10 percent or so is stuff not counted they just want to see if you know it. This is kinda stupid to me and a waste of time but they do it. One question I know for sure was like it had a code written out and asked what will happen if this code is ran? The code was missing a semicolon so if you were to run it it would give a run time error exception. Thats what they were looking for. Why the hell this is on a CompTia Security Plus exam was beyond me but had to be one of the 10 percenters they mentioned.
