220-1102 Security Practice Question
A user reports that they are unable to access a shared folder on the network. The technician verifies that the user's account has been locked out due to multiple failed login attempts. The technician unlocks the account and advises the user to change their password. The user changes the password successfully. Which of the following additional steps should the technician take to prevent future lockouts?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume the lockout is due to user error or a weak policy, and they choose to increase the lockout threshold or disable the policy, rather than investigating background processes that silently reuse old credentials.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
B) Check for a scheduled task or service using old credentials.
The most likely cause of repeated lockouts is a background process—such as a scheduled task, service, or mapped drive—that continues to authenticate with the user's old cached credentials after the password has been changed. This process will keep attempting to log in with the stale password, triggering lockout policies. Checking for and updating these stored credentials prevents the cycle from recurring.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A) Increase the account lockout threshold to allow more failed attempts before lockout.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the account lockout threshold merely tolerates more failed attempts before triggering a lockout, but it does not stop the underlying authentication failures. The root cause is likely a scheduled task or service that still uses a cached old password, and raising the threshold simply widens the window for brute-force attacks. It is a symptomatic fix that weakens security without addressing the credential mismatch, so it does not solve the user's inability to access the shared folder.
- ✓
B) Check for a scheduled task or service using old credentials.
Why this is correct
A scheduled task or Windows service often stores credentials independently from the interactive user logon. After the user changes their password, Task Scheduler or Service Control Manager continues submitting the old password, causing repeated authentication failures and triggering the account lockout policy. To resolve this, check Task Scheduler's 'Run as' accounts and services' 'Log on as' settings, then update the stored credentials to the current password. This directly addresses the repeated failed attempts and restores access to the shared folder.
- ✗
C) Disable the account lockout policy.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the account lockout policy would stop the lockout from happening, but it leaves the user's account exposed to brute-force and password-spraying attacks. This action removes a critical security control and does not fix the actual problem: a background process is still attempting authentication with outdated credentials. It is a reactive change that hides the issue rather than correcting the credential source, and it is never recommended for resolving a single recurring lockout.
- ✗
D) Implement a password expiration policy.
Why it's wrong here
Implementing a password expiration policy forces users to change their passwords periodically, but the user has already changed their password. The recurring lockouts are caused by stale credentials cached in services or scheduled tasks, not by the age of the password. Expiring passwords again would only add administrative overhead and user frustration without addressing the specific credential mismatch that is generating the failed login attempts.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Account Lockout Policies
Key term
Mapped drive
A mapped drive is a shortcut that assigns a drive letter to a shared folder on a network, making it appear as if it is a local storage device on your computer.
Key term
Folder
A folder is a logical container used to organize and group digital files, resources, or cloud-based assets within a system or platform.
About these practice questions
One of 925 original 220-1102 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.