The complete Security+ Domain 1 guide. All 82 pages. Free.
Not a sample. Not a preview. Not the first chapter with a buy button where the good part should be. This is the entire General Security Concepts guide, the same PDF paying customers download.
No email, no account, no trial. It just downloads.
Chris Rees · Pluralsight author · 51 published courses · 4.6/5 from 2,007 ratings · 25+ years in IT
What's inside
82 pages covering all four Domain 1 objectives, in order.
1.1: Compare and contrast types of security controls
All four categories (technical, managerial, operational, physical) and all six types (preventive, deterrent, detective, corrective, compensating, directive), with the 4×6 matrix on one page and worked examples in every cell. The single most reliably tested table in Domain 1.
1.2: Summarize fundamental security concepts
CIA triad, non-repudiation, AAA for people and devices, authorization models, gap analysis, and Zero Trust broken into the control-plane and data-plane pieces CompTIA actually names. Plus physical security and deception technology: honeypots, honeynets, honeyfiles, honeytokens, and what separates each.
1.3: Change management and its security impact
Approval, ownership, stakeholders, impact analysis, test results, backout plans, maintenance windows and SOPs, plus the technical implications CompTIA lists separately: allow and deny lists, restricted activities, downtime, restarts, legacy applications, dependencies, version control.
1.4: Appropriate cryptographic solutions
PKI and key escrow, encryption levels from full-disk to record, transport vs. at-rest, algorithms and key length, hardware roots of trust (TPM, HSM, KMS, secure enclave), steganography, tokenization, masking, hashing, salting, digital signatures, key stretching, certificates, CAs, CRLs, OCSP and wildcards.
Also in the PDF
- A one-page control-type decision flowchart, the thing to reread in the parking lot before you walk in
- 60 practice questions written to the same rules as the quiz: one concept, no padding
- Full answer explanations, including why each wrong option is wrong
- Every section headed with its objective number, so you can track coverage against CompTIA's published list
- Printable, searchable PDF: no DRM, no expiry, no reader app, yours permanently
“Why would you give this away?”
Fair question. Three reasons, in order of honesty.
One: Domain 1 is where everyone starts, and most people start badly. They begin with Domain 4 because it's 28% of the exam, get flattened, and decide security isn't for them. Domain 1 is 12% of the exam but it's 100% of the vocabulary the other four domains are written in. Giving it away removes the excuse not to start in the right place.
Two: it's the most efficient sales argument I have. I could write a landing page telling you my guides are clear and unpadded. You'd have no reason to believe me. Everyone says that. Instead, here are 82 pages. Read fifteen of them. If the writing works for you, the other four domains are $14.95 each or $49for the Collection, and you'll already know exactly what you're getting. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing and I've lost nothing but bandwidth.
Three: I've taught 700,000+ students and this is how it goes. The people who get the free thing and find it genuinely good are the people who come back. That has been true for twenty-five years. It isn't charity and I'm not pretending it is. It's the version of marketing I can do without feeling weird about it.
What I'm notdoing: gating the good half, watermarking it, expiring the link, or sending you a 12-page “preview”. You get the same file, at the same page count, that someone who paid gets.
- Is this really the whole thing?
- Yes. 82 pages, all four objectives, all the practice questions.
- Is it current?
- It's written to SY0-701, the exam in market now.
- Will you spam me?
- Only if you ask for the study series, and that's six emails over three weeks, then roughly one a month, with one-click unsubscribe in all of them. The download itself asks for nothing.
- What's the catch?
- You'll form an opinion about whether the writing is any good. I'm betting on that opinion.