CompTIA Exam Prep - ITF+, A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+

Infrastructure as code means your servers, networks and firewall rules are defined in text files that live in version control, and a tool builds the real thing from those files. That single change — infrastructure described in reviewable, diffable text — is what makes cloud environments auditable at all. It also introduces failure modes that do not exist when someone clicks through a console. Declarative vs Imperative This distinction shows up on Cloud+ and Security+ alike. Declarative code describes the end state: "there should be three web servers in this subnet with this security group." The tool compares that to reality and makes whatever changes close the gap. Terraform and CloudFormation work this way. Imperative code describes the steps: install this package, edit this file, restart this service. Shell scripts are imperative; Ansible playbooks sit closer to declarative but can do either. Declarative is generally preferred for infrastructure because it is i...

CIS Benchmarks CIS Benchmarks are a globally recognized set of security hardening guidelines created and maintained by the Center for Internet Security (CIS). They provide consensus‑driven, vendor‑agnostic best practices for securing operating systems, cloud platforms, applications, services, and network devices. They are developed through a community process involving: Security practitioners Government experts Industry specialists Tool vendors Auditors and compliance professionals CIS Benchmarks are widely used across IT, security, compliance, and DevOps teams to reduce attack surface , support regulatory frameworks, and achieve baseline system security. What CIS Benchmarks Include Each CIS Benchmark provides: 1. Prescriptive Hardening Recommendations These include step‑by‑step guidance, such as: OS configuration settings File permissions Logging requirements Network stack restrictions Authentication and authorization controls Service disablement recommendations Example categories for...

Network automation, REST APIs and configuration management all move structured data around, and CompTIA now expects familiarity with the three formats that carry it. JSON JavaScript Object Notation. Lightweight, text-based, and the default for REST APIs. Two structures: objects in curly braces holding key-value pairs, and arrays in square brackets holding ordered values. They nest arbitrarily. Six data types: string (double quotes only), number , boolean , null , object and array . The syntax rules that catch people: keys must be double-quoted strings; single quotes are invalid; no trailing comma after the last element; no comments at all. A trailing comma is the single most common cause of a JSON parse error, and JSON's lack of comments is why YAML is often preferred for human-edited configuration. XML Extensible Markup Language. Older, more verbose, and still entrenched in enterprise and SOAP environments. Data sits in nested tags with optional attributes. It supports...