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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Foundational

Security Control

Safeguard or countermeasure that protects confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information.

Definition

Security controls are categorized by type (administrative/managerial, technical, operational, physical) and by function (preventive, detective, corrective, deterrent, compensating, recovery, directive). Controls are selected based on risk and evaluated for design and operating effectiveness. NIST SP 800-53 is a common control catalog.

Example

A firewall rule blocking inbound RDP is a technical preventive control.

Exam tip

Security+ asks you to classify controls by both category and function.

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