The CompTIA 220-901 exam is one of two exams requires to obtain the CompTIA A+ (900 series). This exam will cover operating systems like Windows, Macintosh OSX and Linux as well as topics like security, software troubleshooting and operational procedures.
1) Your employer has recently began investigating an employee for using a computer to host and share illegal materials. You have been asked to keep track of the computer's hard drive until it is turned over to the proper authorities. What term best defines this situation?
In this situation you need to ensure proper Chain of Custody. Chain of Custody is a record of evidence's ownership. Anyone who has had control of the evidence should be recorded to include when and where they had it. The Chain of Custody can be used as a legal document to proof no one has altered or deleted data since discovered.
This question is filed under objective 5, Operational Procedures
Chain of custody (CoC), in legal contexts, is the chronological documentation or paper trail that records the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of physical or electronic evidence Of particular importance in criminal cases, the concept is also applied in civil litigation—and sometimes more broadly in drug testing of athletes, and in supply chain management, eg to improve the traceability of food products, or to provide assurances that wood products originate from sustainably managed forests It is often a tedious process that has been required for evidence to be shown legally in court Now however, with new portable technology that allows accurate laboratory quality results from the scene of the crime, the chain… Read More
2) Which of the following is the best definition for open source software?
Open Source software is a software application whose code is publicly available for review, modification and enhancement.
This question is filed under objective 2, Other Operating Systems & Technologies
Open source products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product It most commonly refers to the open-source model, in which open-source software or other products are released under an open-source license as part of the open-source-software movement Use of the term originated with software, but has expanded beyond the software sector to cover other open content and forms of open collaboration … Read More
3) A malicious user has gained access to several user accounts by guessing their password. The malicious user was able to guess passwords using a list of commonly used phrases and words. Which of the following terms best describes this type of attack?
A Dictionary Attack uses a list of preset words, phrases and commonly used passwords.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
In cryptanalysis and computer security, a dictionary attack is a form of brute force attack technique for defeating a cipher or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase by trying thousands or millions of likely possibilities, such as words in a dictionary or previously used passwords, often from lists obtained from past security breaches … Read More
4) You are installing Windows Server 2008 R2 onto a new company file server that uses a RAID card. You have verified that all cabling is correctly seated, but Windows is not recognizing any storage mediums for installation. Which of the following will most likely correct the issue?
Many RAID cards require a vendor specific driver to function with Windows. In order to install Windows, you first need to provide it with the proper RAID driver.
This question is filed under objective 4, Software Troubleshooting
5) You need to download and install a package using the apt-get command on an Ubuntu environment. After running the command you receive an error stating you do not have permissions to perform this action. What should you do next?
Placing sudo (SuperUser Do) in front of a command in some Linux environments will run the command with the security privileges of the root account. Once the command finishes the privileges will be removed and are not applied to any further commands or applications. (unless they are also run with sudo)
This question is filed under objective 2, Other Operating Systems & Technologies
sudo ( or ) is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that allows users to run programs with the security privileges of another user, by default the superuser It originally stood for "superuser do" as the older versions of sudo were designed to run commands only as the superuser However, the later versions added support for running commands not only as the superuser but also as other (restricted) users, and thus it is also commonly expanded as "substitute user do" Although the latter case reflects its current functionality more accurately, sudo is still often called "superuser do" since it is so often used for administrative tasks… Read More
6) You have just configured permissions for a set of folders on an NTFS disk, the folders also have another set of share permissions. When a user connects to one of these folders through a network share, which of the following is true?
When accessing through a network share both NTFS and share permissions will apply. When accessing a file or folder directly only NTFS permissions will apply. In either case the principle of least privilege will apply and the most restrictive permissions will always take priority.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
7) Which of the following Windows commands can identify and repair corrupted information and other hard drive issues?
Check Disk (CHKDSK) is a Windows Repair tool for verifying volume integrity.
This question is filed under objective 4, Software Troubleshooting
In computing, CHKDSK (short for "check disk") is a system tool and command in DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and related operating systems It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and fixes logical file system errors It is similar to the fsck command in Unix and similar to Microsoft ScanDisk which co-existed with CHKDSK in Windows 9x and MS-DOS 6x … Read More
8) Which of the following will allow a Windows OS to boot with only the essentials like basic drivers, required programs and default settings?
Safe Mode, as it's name implies, can allow a Windows OS to safely BOOT even when a malicious software, invalid driver, or other issue is causing a system failure.
This question is filed under objective 4, Software Troubleshooting
Safe mode is a diagnostic mode of a computer operating system (OS) It can also refer to a mode of operation by application software In Windows, safe mode only allows essential system programs and services to start up at boot Safe mode is intended to help fix most, if not all problems within an operating system It is also widely used for removing rogue security software … Read More
9) Which of the following security threats is BEST mitigated through proper user training?
There's no firewall or antivirus that can protect from Social Engineering. The best solution is to teach users how to identify and avoid Social Engineering.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
Social engineering, in the context of information security, is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information This differs from social engineering within the social sciences, which does not concern the divulging of confidential information A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud schemeIt has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests… Read More
10) Amanda, a user, has a laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate. She has asked the IT Department to update her laptop to run Windows 10 Pro. Which of the following should be done first?
Windows 10 and Windows 7 were released 6 years apart. It is possible her laptop does not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 10 and the laptop's specs should be verified first.
This question is filed under objective 1, Windows Operating Systems
To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer These prerequisites are known as (computer) system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule Most software defines two sets of system requirements: minimum and recommended With increasing demand for higher processing power and resources in newer versions of software, system requirements tend to increase over time Industry analysts suggest that this trend plays a bigger part in driving upgrades to existing computer systems than technological advancements A second meaning of the term of system requirements, is a generalisation of this first definition, giving the… Read More
11) You have been instructed to configure a database server running Windows Server 2008 to alert technicians when the server's processor or memory is running above 75% capacity. Which of the following technologies will help you achieve this?
Performance monitor is a Windows tool that can be used to monitor and log a system's health and status in real time. Task Manager can display similar information but does not log and should only be used as a quick reference.
This question is filed under objective 1, Windows Operating Systems
A system monitor is a hardware or software component used to monitor system resources and performance in a computer systemAmong the management issues regarding use of system monitoring tools are resource usage and privacy … Read More
12) After installing Windows 10 on a Laptop PC alongside an existing Red Hat Linux installation you receive a message stating that the GRUB file is missing when you try to boot the PC. Which of the following is the best option?
GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) is an open source technology commonly used to allow multiple operating systems to boot on a single machine. GRUB is commonly used as the default boot loader for Linux, but it is compatible with Windows also. When Windows 10 was installed the GRUB was replaced or corrupted and using the Linux installation CD to restore it is your best option.
This question is filed under objective 4, Software Troubleshooting
GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a user the choice to boot one of multiple operating systems installed on a computer or select a specific kernel configuration available on a particular operating system's partitions GNU GRUB was developed from a package called the Grand Unified Bootloader (a play on Grand Unified Theory) It is predominantly used for Unix-like systems The GNU operating system uses GNU GRUB as its boot loader, as do most Linux distributions and the Solaris operating system on x86 systems, starting with the Solaris 10 1/06… Read More
13) Which of the following terms describes a folder's permissions defaulting to match the permissions of it's parent's folder?
Inheritance is when an computer object, like a file or folder inherits settings from it's parent. For example, if a user does not have read access to a folder, they also cannot read any files or sub folders of that directory.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
14) A technician is accessing a Windows PC via SSH. Which command can the technician use to create a new directory on the PC?
MD (same as MKDIR) is a command used to create a new folder or directory in a Windows environment.
This question is filed under objective 1, Windows Operating Systems
The mkdir (make directory) command in the Unix, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory It is also available in the EFI shell and in the PHP scripting language In DOS, OS/2, Windows and ReactOS, the command is often abbreviated to md The command is analogous to the Stratus OpenVOS create_dir command MetaComCo TRIPOS and AmigaDOS provide a similar MakeDir command to create new directories The numerical computing environments MATLAB and GNU Octave include an mkdir function with similar functionality … Read More
15) You are a desktop technician for a public school district. Your supervisor has asked you to write a script that will configure the wireless adapters on student's Linux based laptops to connect only to authorized access point. Assuming the access point's MAC Address is 00:0D:9D:C6:38:2D, which command will help you achieve this?
IWCONFIG is a Linux command line tool for configuring wireless settings. IWCONFIG can be used to change settings like authorized access points, signal strength, wireless channel, and what SSID to connect to. IP Address, subnet mask and DNS servers are still configured via IFCONFIG.
This question is filed under objective 2, Other Operating Systems & Technologies
16) Which of the following is true about a file when it is copied from an NTFS to a FAT32 partitions?
Unfortunately the FAT32 file system does not allow for file and folder permissions like those that are commonly found on modern file systems, such as NTFS.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
17) Which Windows tool can prevent programs from automatically opening upon start up on the Windows 7 Operating System?
The MSCONFIG tool, officially called the System Configuration tool has several features for troubleshooting and modifying the start up process.
This question is filed under objective 4, Software Troubleshooting
MSConfig (officially called System Configuration in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10, and Microsoft System Configuration Utility in previous operating systems) is a system utility to troubleshoot the Microsoft Windows startup process It can disable or re-enable software, device drivers and Windows services that run at startup, or change boot parameters It is bundled with all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems since Windows 98 except Windows 2000 Windows 95 and Windows 2000 users can download the utility as well, although it was not designed for them… Read More
18) What is step 3 in the trouble shooting theory?
The trouble shooting theory is as follows: 1. Identify the problem, 2. Establish a theory of probable cause, 3. Test the theory to determine cause, 4. Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution, 5. Verify full system functionality and if applicable implement preventive measures, 6. Document findings, actions and outcomes
This question is filed under objective 5, Operational Procedures
19) Which of the following Windows command line tools will provide a computer's network configuration information?
Ipconfig is a Windows command line tool that provides network information like the IP Address, MAC Address, and Subnet Mask.
This question is filed under objective 1, Windows Operating Systems
20) You are a network administrator for a large company. Several network users have complained that they are receiving odd emails from another user, who claims they have not sent any emails today. Which of the following will most likely stop the issue?
Changing the account password will most likely solve the issue, but better preventatives should be put in place as soon as possible. Spam filters typically ignore local emails, which is why this is not the correct answer.
This question is filed under objective 3, Security
Email filtering is the processing of email to organize it according to specified criteria The term can apply to the intervention of human intelligence, but most often refers to the automatic processing of incoming messages with anti-spam techniques - to outgoing emails as well as those being received Email filtering software may reject an item at the initial SMTP connection stage or pass it through unchanged for delivery to the user's mailbox - or alternatively: redirect the message for delivery elsewhere quarantine it for further checking edit or 'tag' it in some way … Read More
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