List of acronyms from CompTIA's official exam guide, and more.

Originally created for Cybr's CompTIA Security+ course and practice exams

Bolded terms were terms that I personally saw on my version of the exam. Keep in mind you won’t necessarily get the same questions I got so don’t just study for those terms…I just wanted to give you an idea of what to expect.

Please note:

This list is still a work in progress. I'm working on cleaning it up, and some acronyms don't have definitions yet. Please bear with me as I get that done :)...also, you're welcome to contribute by commenting on this page!

Permissions:

Feel free to use this list however you see fit as long as you do not commercialize it. All I ask for in return is that you give Cybr's course a link back :)

• Christophe

Acronyms

• 3DES (Triple Digital Encryption Standard)
  • Deprecated and considered insecure. Replaced by AES
  • Symmetric
  • Applies the DES cipher algorithm 3 times to each data block
• AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting)
  • Often used to describe RADIUS, or some other form of networking protocol that provides Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
• ABAC (Attribute-based Access Control)
  • Rights granted through policies that combine attributes together
• Active Directory
  • Database and identity service used to provide identity management
  • Explanation
• ACL (Access Control List)
  • Set of rules that allow/permit or deny any traffic flow through routers
  • Looks at the packet to determine whether it should be allowed or denied
  • Works at layer 3 to provide security by filtering & controlling the flow of traffic from one router to another
• AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
  • Industry-standard for data security
  • 128-bit, 192-bit, or 256-bit (strongest) implementations
• AES256 (Advanced Encryption Standards 256bit)
  • This is the 256-bit implementation of AES
  • The 256 references the bit size of keys
• AH (Authentication Header)
  • Used to authenticate origins of packets of data transmitted
  • These headers don’t hide any data from attackers, but they do provide proof that the data packets are from a trusted source and that the data hasn’t been tampered with
  • Helps protect against replay attacks
• AI (Artificial Intelligence)
  • For the exam, be aware of what’s called data poisoning (or tainted training) & adversarial AI
• AIS (Automated Indicator Sharing)
  • DHS and CISA free program
  • Enables organizations to share and receive machine-readable cyber threat indicators (CTIs) and defensive measures (DMs) in real-time
  • Useful to monitor and defend networks against known threats