CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Practice Question

Configuring the security appliance to fail-open ensures that in the event of a malfunction, network traffic continues to flow, maintaining availability for users. While this may temporarily reduce security by allowing potentially malicious traffic, it aligns with the policy priority of uninterrupted service. In contrast, fail-closed or fail-secure modes would block all traffic upon failure, prioritizing security over availability, which does not meet the organization's requirements. Fail-safe can be ambiguous but often implies defaulting to a secure state, similar to fail-closed. Therefore, choosing fail-open addresses the need for continuous availability despite equipment failures.