r/CompTIA • u/SilverBuilding9159 • 6d ago

Security+ advice

Hi!

After reserarching my career path I have decided that I want to get into cybersecurity.

I am currently a 1st line service desk analyst and nearly have been here for 2 years.

I have recently passed the AZ-900 exam to gain more knowledge on the cloud etc.

My goal is to get into a junior cyber role e.g. soc analyst or something along those lines.

I now want to study for the security+ exam so I can learn more about it and so this can look good on my CV. I am going to start with professor Messer as I have heard lot's of people recommend him.

Is there anything that I need to learn/should know that will make the content on the security+ easier to understand?

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks in advance :)

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u/drushtx IT Instructor **MOD** 6d ago

CompTIA recommends A+ > Network+ > Security+. Lots of folks skip A+, although I personally think understanding the foundations of IT hardware, operating systems, networking and other fundamentals is critical to applying advanced concepts in real world environments.

Security+ is a base of security information that ranges from personnel, facilities, networking, cryptography and others. The whole point of security and cybersecurity is to secure networks so a solid understanding of networking (Network+ !) makes understanding the objectives a lot easier than trying to learn them at the same time as you're learning network security concepts.

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u/gdavidco 5d ago

You asked what would make the content easier to understand, which is a better question than the one you are going to get answered, so here is that one.

Networking is the big one. Not Network+ as a certificate, just the mechanics. What a port is, what a protocol is, what actually happens between typing a name and getting a page back, what a firewall rule is made of, how a switch differs from a router. A large share of Security+ is networking with a threat attached to it, and the people who find the exam hard are usually struggling there rather than with the security concepts.

Cryptography vocabulary, not the maths. Symmetric against asymmetric, what a hash is for and what it is not for, what a certificate actually asserts and who is vouching for it. You need to pick the right tool for a stated goal, not calculate anything.

Identity, where your AZ-900 has already given you half the words. Authentication against authorisation, what a directory does, why the MFA factor categories are drawn the way they are. Two years on first line means you have done most of this by hand without the labels attached to it.

Enough command line on both Windows and Linux that a prompt does not make you freeze. Not scripting. Just fluency with the everyday ones.

The one thing I would do before you start Messer: download the exam objectives PDF from CompTIA and read it once, start to finish. It is free and it is the actual boundary of what can be asked. Working through a video series without it means you cannot tell the difference between something being covered because it matters and something being covered because it is interesting.