After publishing my last article on how I got my Network+ exam, my veteran security group members said I should publish one of these articles for each certification I’ve gotten. Hopefully this helps you. Also, you can probably knock out your studying for under 40 dollars if you’re on a budget.

Security+ should be considered a broad survey of information security topics. You don’t have to know anything in depth… but you do have to have a broad scope of knowledge. I would recommend you do this certification after doing N+. Why? Because CompTIA assumes you have and they’re going to throw a handful of networking questions at you.

First of all, you need to read a book. I’m going to go ahead and say this was the only one I read:

Go buy it. It’s 10 dollars as a Kindle download. You get 600 pages of information and tests. There’s a pretest and practice test along with end-of-chapter review questions.

I think if you’ve spent any time searching for resources, you’re going to have heard of Professor Messer.

Here’s an embedded playlist of his Security+ videos. At the time of writing, there are 141 videos.

Watch them. Twice. No seriously. Remember how I said you need a broad amount of knowledge? This is going to help you get there. I personally just listened to them while driving to work, cooking, etc. If you listen to the Professor Messer videos while reading the book then watch the videos again after finishing it, I think you’ll be fine. Oh, and obviously do all of the practice tests in the All-In-One.

Now at this point, you have the absolutely required resources. You really don’t have to spend any more money. However, if you’re worried..

Udemy has a good number of Security+ study resources. That link will take you to their S+ category.

I’m not going to say this one is a great practice test series (honestly, it’s not) but I did use this to some extent. There are coupons offered periodically so I got it for free. I wouldn’t recommend paying for it.

If you’re really worried, Boson tests are generally the gold standard for making sure you’re ready. They tend to be expensive but you can rest assured that they’re harder than the actual test. I did not personally make use of this for the CompTIA Security+ exam but I have for others.

Let’s discuss the test briefly. It will have a small number of performance-based questions (PBQs). You’re not going to be stack smashing at a command line interface but you should expect some mildly confusing questions. That being said, don’t do the PBQs first. Save them for last. They’re going to stress you out and it’ll impact the rest of the exam. The PBQs themselves are not much more difficult than drag-and-drop or “arrange these blocks to fit the settings that [solve this problem/fix the vulnerability/make the network work again].” You should probably have a little knowledge of how to walk around a Linux and Windows command prompt for basic network troubleshooting. You’re not going to be doing zombie scans in Nmap but.. you should probably know how to fix common network problems that are security themed.

Overall, don’t stress out. Oh, and look over cryptography.