CompTIA Updated SY0-701 Exam Questions and Answers by sylvie

The correct answer is D. Peer review and approval.

Peer review and approval help prevent a single developer or insider from inserting malicious code without oversight. This practice supports separation of duties, accountability, secure software development, and change control. Requiring another qualified person to review and approve code changes increases the chance that suspicious, unauthorized, or malicious code will be identified before it enters production.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Code scanning for vulnerabilities

Code scanning can identify known vulnerabilities, insecure coding patterns, and some misconfigurations. However, malicious code intentionally written to appear legitimate may not always be detected by automated scanning.

B. Open-source component usage

Using open-source components does not prevent insider abuse. In fact, open-source dependencies may introduce additional supply chain risk if not properly reviewed.

C. Quality assurance testing

Quality assurance testing verifies whether software works as intended, but it may not detect intentionally malicious logic hidden in the code.

Therefore, peer review and approval is the best practice to prevent an insider from introducing malicious code into the development process.

Upgrading end-of-support operating systemsisone of the most effective ways to reduce the attack surface. Unsupported OS versionsno longer receive security patches, making them prime targets for attackers.Removing outdated softwareensures that known vulnerabilities cannot be exploited.

A (honeynet)is used for threat analysis, not reducing the attack surface.

B (Group Policy)helps enforce security policies butdoes not address outdated vulnerabilities.

C (High availability)focuses on uptime, not security risk reduction.

Data in transit is data that is moving from one location to another, such as over a network or through the air. Data in transit is vulnerable to interception, modification, or theft by malicious actors. A VPN (virtual private network) is a technology that protects data in transit by creating a secure tunnel between two endpoints and encrypting the data that passes through it2.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If MFA is in place yet attackers still breach the system, the compromise most likely resulted from social engineering, specifically pretexting. Pretexting occurs when an attacker fabricates a convincing scenario (a “pretext”) to trick the victim into revealing authentication information, such as OTP codes, MFA prompts, or login details. Even strong MFA cannot prevent an attack when a human is tricked into voluntarily providing the code.

Smishing (A) involves fraudulent SMS messages, but no messaging is mentioned in the scenario. Typosquatting (B) involves deceptive URLs that appear similar to legitimate sites and is unrelated to MFA compromise. Espionage (C) refers to stealing sensitive or national-security-related information, not bypassing MFA protections.

Security+ SY0-701 details pretexting under Social Engineering Attacks, emphasizing that MFA does not fully mitigate human manipulation. Attackers frequently impersonate IT staff, vendors, or automated systems to convince victims to “verify” or “confirm” credentials. This perfectly matches a breach where MFA was present but still circumvented through deception.