What Is CompTIA Security+ V8 (SY0-801)?

Overview

CompTIA Security+ V8 (SY0-801) is a CompTIA credential. Prepare for CompTIA Security+ V8 (SY0-801), expected around November 17, 2026. Covers all five exam domains and explains the move from SY0-701. This PathKey™ guide summarizes the domains, format, cost signals, eligibility, and renewal pattern so you can decide before you book. Accumentum is a CompTIA Authorized Training Partner and an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. CompTIA sets exam content, fees, and policies.

Accumentum is a CompTIA Authorized Training Partner and an Army CA and Air Force COOL Approved Vendor. CompTIA sets exam content, fees, and policies.

Who it is for

• IT professionals who want a vendor-neutral cybersecurity certification and plan to test on or after the SY0-801 launch.
• Systems administrators, network administrators, and help desk staff moving into security roles.
• Security analysts and junior security engineers who want current coverage of AI-related threats, Zero Trust, and cloud, hybrid, and OT environments.

Exam domains

Weights follow the official outline.

1. 01

   Security Concepts, Controls, and Change Management

   SY0-801 Domain 1, General Security Concepts (16%). Objectives 1.1 and 1.2, Explain defense in depth, including confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA), authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), non-repudiation, Zero Trust principles, and least privilege, and Compare control categories (technical, managerial, physical, and operational) and control types (preventive, deterring, corrective, detective, compensating, and directive).

2. 02

   Cryptographic Solutions

   SY0-801 Domain 1, General Security Concepts (16%). Objective 1.3, Explain public key infrastructure (PKI), including public keys, private keys, and key escrow, and Describe certificates, including certificate authorities, certificate revocation lists, OCSP, self-signed and third-party certificates, root of trust, certificate signing requests, and wildcard certificates.

3. 03

   Threats, Threat Actors, and Threat Vectors

   SY0-801 Domain 2, Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks (24%). Objectives 2.1 to 2.3, Explain characteristics of threats and vulnerabilities, including threat feeds, likelihood, impact, CVSS scoring, prioritization, and CVE, and Describe threat actors such as organized crime, unskilled attackers, hacktivists, insiders, competitors, and state-sponsored actors, along with their motivations and attributes.

4. 04

   Vulnerabilities, Attack Surfaces, and Malicious Activity

   SY0-801 Domain 2, Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks (24%). Objectives 2.4 and 2.5, Explain types of vulnerabilities and attack surfaces, such as unsupported and unpatched systems, race conditions, hardcoded secrets, zero-day vulnerabilities, shadow IT, misconfiguration, and large language models, and Analyze indicators of malicious activity across malware, physical, network, social engineering, application, and credential attacks.

5. 05

   Threats and Vulnerabilities in AI Usage

   SY0-801 Domain 2, Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks (24%). Objective 2.6, which does not appear in the SY0-701 objective list on CompTIA’s V7 page, Summarize AI threats such as model manipulation, poisoning, prompt injection, jailbreaking, evasion, session hijacking, and code execution, and Explain data loss, privacy, bias, explainability, hallucinations, and ethical considerations in AI usage.

6. 06

   Architecture Models and Infrastructure Security

   SY0-801 Domain 3, Security Architecture (19%). Objectives 3.1 and 3.2, Compare the security implications of architecture models, including cloud (serverless, multicloud, deployment models, and infrastructure as code), OT, on-premises infrastructure, air-gapped networks, microservices, and segmentation, and Weigh technical and business considerations such as availability, resilience, data sovereignty, data classification, cost, and risk.

7. 07

   Data Protection, Resilience, and Recovery

   SY0-801 Domain 3, Security Architecture (19%). Objectives 3.3 and 3.4, Summarize data types, data states (data at rest, data in use, and data in transit), and data classifications, and Explain methods used to secure data, such as masking, hashing, tokenization, encryption, and deidentification, along with data protection roles and the data management life cycle.

8. 08

   Mitigating Controls, Assets, and Vulnerability Management

   SY0-801 Domain 4, Security Operations (27%). Objectives 4.1 to 4.4, Apply mitigating controls such as segmentation, hardening, deception technology, intrusion detection and prevention, firewalls, endpoint detection and response, network access control, and email security (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM), and Explain the security implications of the asset management life cycle, from planning and acquisition to monitoring and disposal.

9. 09

   Identity, Automation, Incident Response, and Investigations

   SY0-801 Domain 4, Security Operations (27%). Objectives 4.5 to 4.8, Apply identity and access management concepts, including provisioning, federation, single sign-on, account types, MFA, access control models, and password concepts such as passkeys and passwordless, and Apply automation and orchestration to secure operations, including automation use cases, guardrails, AI capabilities such as agentic tools and chatbots, and CI/CD workflows.

10. 10

    Security Program Management and Oversight

    SY0-801 Domain 5, Security Program Management and Oversight (14%). Objectives 5.1 to 5.6, Explain governance, risk, and compliance artifacts: guidelines, standards, procedures, plans, and policies, and Explain risk management processes, including risk identification, assessment, analysis, the risk register, risk treatment, and business impact analysis.

Exam format and cost

Questions

90

Duration

90 minutes

Format

Multiple choice and related item types (confirm on the vendor outline)

Passing score

750

Cost

Confirm the current U.S. voucher price on CompTIA's store before you buy (often listed in the mid-$300s to low-$400s USD in 2026)

Delivery

Confirm delivery options on the vendor site

Languages

Confirm available languages on the vendor site

Experience and eligibility

There are no enrollment prerequisites for this course. CompTIA lists recommended experience for SY0-801 as a security administrator with two years of hands-on experience.

Renewal

Renewal rules for CompTIA Security+ V8 (SY0-801) are set by CompTIA. Many credentials use a multi-year cycle with continuing education, a renewal fee, or a newer exam. Confirm the current cycle on the vendor site.

Roles this credential fits

• General security concepts, threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks (including AI-related risks), security architecture, security operations, and security program management and oversight, aligned with CompTIA’s Security+ V8 (SY0-801) exam objectives.
• Cybersecurity
• Teams standardizing on this credential for hiring or compliance

Official sources

• CompTIA certifications

Always confirm fees, dates, and eligibility on the vendor site before you register. Vendors change outlines and prices without notice.