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Submit bugs, feature requests, and feedbackCompTIA · 3-year cycle · 50 CEUs
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701). Foundational vendor-neutral security cert covering threats, architecture, implementation, operations, and governance.
Renewal cycle
3 years
Between full re-certifications.
Credits required
50 CEU
Roughly 17 CEU per year.
Indexed here
194
Opportunities mapped to this cert.
CompTIA Security+ requires 50 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) over a 3-year cycle plus a $50/year Continuing Education (CE) fee. Most candidates earn CEUs comfortably — the trap is the activity-type caps that limit how much credit you can claim from any one source.
If you were starting fresh
CEU TOTAL
60.0
COST
$0
TIME
—
ACTIVITIES
3
Closes the 50.0 CEU gap with 3 activities — free content where possible, paid where the credits-per-dollar are strong.
CEUs are tracked in the CompTIA CE Portal (your existing CompTIA account). Every activity needs a date, a provider, a description, and either a completion certificate or a verifiable URL. CompTIA's audit rate is published as 2.5% of certificants per cycle — small enough to feel improbable, large enough that organised documentation matters.
The CE fee is separate from CEUs. You can be fully CEU-compliant and still lapse if the $50/year fee is unpaid; CompTIA bills it annually through the CE Portal. Set a reminder.
Activity caps are where most candidates trip. Five categories with hard limits per cycle: (1) Other higher-level IT certifications — capped at the cert's full CEU value (e.g., CySA+ = 50 CEUs, renews Security+ entirely on its own); (2) Education + training courses — up to 1 CEU per hour, no overall cap; (3) Activities (publishing, teaching, mentoring) — capped at 18 CEUs per cycle; (4) Industry conferences + webinars — capped at 24 CEUs per cycle; (5) Work experience in IT security — capped at 18 CEUs per cycle.
The conference cap surprises people. If you're a conference person, half your annual quota maxes out at one good event series; you'll still need formal training or a higher cert to cover the back half.
1 CEU = 1 hour of qualifying activity, rounded to the nearest 0.25 CEU. Lunch breaks, networking, and exhibit-hall time don't count — only sessions with substantive content.
CompTIA's stack-renew rule is the single highest-leverage renewal play. Earning a higher-level CompTIA cert automatically renews every lower-stack cert you hold for a full new 3-year cycle. Security+ is renewed by CySA+, PenTest+, CASP+, and the CompTIA Security Analytics Expert (CSAE) and Network Vulnerability Assessment Professional (CNVP) stackable credentials.
If you were going to study for the next cert anyway, this turns renewal into a free side-effect. Many candidates plan the next exam to land in year 2 or year 3 of their current cycle precisely for this reason. The CE fee still applies — passing a higher exam doesn't waive the annual maintenance — but you skip the CEU bookkeeping entirely.
Pitfall 1: Last-quarter rush. CEU activities have a 1-year lookback for documentation requests; backloading the cycle means producing 30+ CEUs of evidence simultaneously if you're audited.
Pitfall 2: Counting employer training that wasn't recorded. CompTIA accepts internal corporate training if the topic is security-relevant and your employer issues a completion record. "It was in a Teams meeting" without a transcript or certificate won't pass an audit.
Pitfall 3: Forgetting the fee. The CE fee runs as a separate invoice from CEU submissions. A clean CEU portal with a $0 fee balance is the only "active" state.
$150 over three years if you only pay the CE fee ($50/year × 3). Add the cost of whatever activities you choose — webinars and many courses are free, paid courses range from $0–$2000 per source.
Yes. CompTIA's stack-renew rule renews every lower-tier CompTIA cert for a full new 3-year cycle when you earn a higher-tier cert. The annual CE fee still applies separately. RecertHero's cert-coverage map flags this overlap.
CompTIA's published audit rate is 2.5% per cycle. Audited candidates have 30 days to produce documentation for any submitted CEU — completion certificates, agenda screenshots, paid invoices, or instructor confirmations. Keep evidence for the full 3 years plus a buffer year.
Yes. Passing the current Security+ exam (presently SY0-701) restarts your 3-year cycle. Useful when you've fallen behind on CEUs late in the cycle — the exam costs $404 and is often faster than scrambling for 30+ CEUs of evidence.
CompTIA puts you in a 90-day grace period. CEU submissions during that window count toward the prior cycle; the CE fee + back-dues need to be cleared. Beyond grace, the cert moves to expired status and you'd retake the current exam to reinstate.
194 results mapped to Security+, ranked by what’s coming up next.
Denial of service attacks became larger and more complex in 2021 with peak attack bandwidth now more than five times larger than it was in 2020. From disgruntled customers, to organized cybercrime and even modern day cyber warfare, DDoS attacks are still a go-to for many threat actors with effects of successful denial of service attacks ranging from temporary disruption of an online event to outages of critical infrastructure. Increasingly, DDoS attacks also used by cybercrime gangs to coerce payments of ransomware demands. While DDoS mitigation services are getting better at deflecting large volumetric DDoS attacks, the shift in tactics to focus on protocol and application DDoS makes mitigation a more complex task. On June 14, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific (ISC)² and F5 Labs discuss the F5 DDoS Trends report which analyzed thousands of attacks over the past two years to uncover how DDoS attacks are changing. We will showcase which industry sectors are most frequently attacked, which suffer the largest and most complex attacks, and some of the relevant security controls which can be employed to counter the growing threat. Join this webinar to learn: -What the most common forms of DDoS attacks are -Which industries are most effected -How attackers are building botnets and changing tactics -How to use the MITRE ATT&CK framework to map effective security controls
No doubt, you’ve heard the buzz about zero trust. Zero trust isn’t a product but rather a journey. While the end goal is worthwhile, like most things in security, getting there won’t be fast or easy. In this live session, June 28, 2022 at 1:00 p.m Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific IANS Faculty and (ISC)² discuss: • Exactly what a strong zero trust architecture requires • Concrete steps to take and products to consider to that help keep you moving on the right path • Ways to measure progress, set realistic milestones and ensure goals are obtainable
72% of enterprises are actively prioritizing zero trust. Unfortunately, many companies still rely on traditional castle-and-moat network infrastructure. Deploying zero trust with legacy parts is a daunting task. The cloud-first world requires a fundamentally different approach to zero trust which is decoupled from the underlying network, allowing a direct, fast, and secure connection from users to applications regardless of location. Join us July 12, 2022 at 1:00 p.m., Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific when Zscaler and (ISC)² 's webinar session will discuss: - Identifying clear signs that your firewalls are unfit for zero trust - Making your case to break free from legacy approaches and adopt zero trust - Learning how Zscaler Cloud-gen firewall can help you get there faster
“SMS-based phishing attempts doubled in the U.S. year over year”-- that is just one key finding in Proofpoint’s 2022 Human Factor Threat Report. The report is the culmination of a year’s worth of threat research and insights drawn from more than 5 billion email messages, 35 billion URLs, 200 million attachments, 35 million cloud accounts and 1.7 billion suspicious SMS messages. It reveals surprising trends and offers actionable insight that sheds light on the nature of today’s cyber threats. Join us July 21, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific as Proofpoint and (ISC)² take a deep dive into: • The developing relationship between cyber-criminal groups and what it means for the rest of us • How the most critical variable, people, can help mitigate attacks and manage privilege • The threats detected, mitigated and resolved during 2021 and our deployments
It feels like we hear about a new devastating cyberattack in the news every day. And attack methods seem to be proliferating at an exponential rate. So, which tactics should you be aware of beyond standard “click and infect” attack vectors? Join Roger Grimes KnowBe4's Data-Driven Defense Evangelist and popular cybersecurity author for this eye-opening webinar. He will share his take on several significant, advanced, and yes, crazy cyberattacks he’s seen in the wild. Plus, he’ll share defensive strategies you’ll want to implement to prevent them from affecting your network. You’ll see examples of some amazing hacks showing how: Your users’ passwords can be cracked in mere minutes Cybercriminals easily bypass Multi-Factor Authentication Automated malware can devastate your network Hackers can completely take over your network with a few simple steps And more! Find out what you can do to mitigate these advanced hacking techniques instead of becoming the next unknowing victim.
No doubt, you’ve seen it, the threat landscape is evolving year over year. How do you fine tune your defenses against an ever-changing adversary? On August 18, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific join F5 Labs and (ISC)² for a multifaceted analysis of the application security threat landscape based on F5 Labs’ 2022 Application Protection Report. The report analyzes nearly 1,000 data breaches from 2021, focusing on three specific threats: ransomware, which played a role in nearly half of the successful attacks in 2021; formjacking attacks like Magecart; and data exfiltration, which was featured in nearly 80% of breaches. F5 Labs and will share additional perspectives of the threat landscape, with a look at cloud risks, cryptocurrency theft, and some case studies about well-resourced attackers. The session will conclude with recommended best practices using prioritization methods for different scenarios.
More than seven in 10 organizations were victimized by successful ransomware attacks last year. These days, it’s more of a question of “when” than “if” your organization will be next. Are you ready? Join Steve Piper, Founder & CEO of CyberEdge (and proud CISSP), as he reviews the latest ransomware statistics from the 2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report and describes what it takes to be prepared for the inevitable. Specifically, Steve will: - Examine disturbing ransomware trends, by country and by industry - Evaluate key factors that go into deciding whether to pay ransoms - Outline ways to be prepared for a successful ransomware attack - Review technologies to help give security teams the upper hand
The OWASP® Foundation works to improve the security of software through its community-led open source software projects and is the de facto authority on bots and malicious automation. Join this webinar to dive into the OWASP Automated Threats (OAT) project and get important guidance that you can immediately put into practice. We will dive into the ontology and countermeasures of the OAT, discuss example scenarios, and get real on some widely deployed security controls (apologies in advance to any CAPTCHA fans). Learn the importance of mitigating attacks like credential stuffing, which is a part of the OWASP Automated Threats project, and is a top software security risk as detailed in the OWASP Top 10.
“How can we implement a zero trust strategy?” is a question asked by nearly every security team that wants to avoid increasing their attack surface and being the victim of a high-profile breach. A zero trust strategy is rooted in the principle of “never trust, always verify” — which minimizes risk by securing sensitive data, systems, and services. However, all too often security teams discover that they don't have the visibility they need to do this. The first step to implementing a zero trust strategy and achieving exceptional security hygiene? Building and maintaining an inventory of your critical assets. Please join Axonius and (ISC)² on August 23 at 1:00pm Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific as we share how teams can approach zero trust principles and how keeping an asset inventory can help answer the toughest zero trust questions: What device is trying to access corporate assets? What vulnerabilities exist on my applications and services? Which users have access to critical resources? Is my zero trust application managed or unmanaged?
When entire workforces went remote in 2020 because of the global pandemic, organizations pivoted quickly to new business models by migrating apps and services to the cloud to enable the anywhere, everywhere workforce. Many business users are spending a majority of their workday in a browser which accesses unmanaged sites, too. These same digital enhancements, also ushered in widespread transformation that expanded attack surfaces and created new opportunities for cyber miscreants, giving rise to Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT), which are used as entry points for initiating ransomware, data theft, and account takeovers. During this insightful session taking place on Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern / 10:00 a.m. Pacific, (ISC)² and Menlo Security will discuss why HEAT attacks are the next-class of browser-based attacks taking advantage of today’s remote and hybrid workforce.
Nearly 70% of organizations host more than half their workloads in the cloud, which has more than doubled since 2020. There’s a dangerous pothole on the fast track to cloud migration, and it grows larger the longer it’s ignored: application development security. The good news is that wherever you are on the journey, you can rethink your cloud native development strategy and confidently steer clear of damage. Our webinar “Top 5 Cloud-Native Risks” is a smart place to start. Join Palo Alto and (ISC)² September 8, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific to see the latest research, insights and recommendations from pros in security, DevOps technical, and line of business leadership. Learn how to balance the benefits of cloud native development with new best practices for protecting applications, and ensure that your environment stays resilient, flexible and secure.
For the past 16 months, eSentire’s security research team, the Threat Response Unit (TRU), has been tracking one of the most capable and stealthy malware suites—Golden Chickens. This malware is the “cyber weapon of choice” for two of Russia’s top cybercrime groups: FIN6 and Cobalt Group. TRU not only detected a new Golden Chickens threat campaign targeting e-commerce organizations but has also discovered the identity of the threat actors behind it. With this intelligence we deciphered the threat actor’s Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs), as well as the origins of the Golden Chickens Malware-As-A-Service (MaaS) and its ongoing operations. In this webinar on September 13, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/10:00 a.m. Pacific eSentire and (ISC)² walk you through the Golden Chickens malware suite and the reconnaissance to unmask the identity of the VENOM SPIDER. Learn more about: • A detailed account of the investigation and subsequent identification of the Golden Chickens MaaS operator • An analysis of the Golden Chickens malware and the current cyberattack campaign • Insights and threat detection recommendations on how to defend your organization from the Golden Chickens threat • An overview of the FIN6 and Cobalt Group cybercrime organizations
Jump to a focused view — free webinars, short lessons, exam-prep tracks — curated for Security+ renewal.
Maintaining more than one credential? A single activity often counts toward several — here’s what pairs with Security+.
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ImportantRecertHero is an independent aggregator. Credit estimates are guidance only — always verify with your certifying body.