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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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EXAM TIP The 1002 exam will quiz you on multifactor and two-factor

authentication. This applies to all computing devices.

Software Authentication: Proper Passwords It’s still rather shocking to

me to power up a friend’s computer and go straight to his or her desktop, or

with my married-with-kids friends, to click one of the parents’ user account

icons and not be prompted for a password. This is just wrong! I’m always

tempted to assign passwords right then and there—and not tell them the

passwords, of course—so they’ll see the error of their ways when they try to

log on next. I don’t do it but always try to explain gently the importance of

good passwords.

EXAM TIP Oddly, the 1002 exam lists recovery console as a viable

security tool, but that only applied to Windows XP, not the OSs on the

current exam. Look for recovery console as a false answer.

You know about passwords from Chapter 13, so I won’t belabor the point

here. Suffice it to say that you must require that your users have proper

passwords, and ensure they are set to expire on a regular basis. Don’t let them

write passwords down or tape them to the underside of their mouse pads

either!

It’s not just access to Windows that you need to think about. There’s

always the temptation for people to do other mean things, such as change

CMOS settings, open up the case, and even steal hard drives. Any of these

actions renders the computer inoperable to the casual user until a tech can

undo the damage or replace components. All modern CMOS setup utilities

come with a number of tools to protect your computer, such as drive lock,

intrusion detection, and of course system access BIOS/UEFI passwords such

as the one shown in Figure 27-6. Refer to Chapter 5, “Firmware,” to refresh

yourself on what you can do at a BIOS level to protect your computer.

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