SY0-701 Security Operations Practice Question
A server room uses raised flooring and sits below a chilled-water pipe. Facilities wants the earliest warning if water starts accumulating under the floor tiles. Which control should be added?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse environmental monitoring controls (like leak detection) with physical security controls (like motion detectors or badge readers), or assume smoke detectors are sufficient for all hazard detection, when they are specific to fire only.
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
✓
Install leak-detection sensors or a moisture detection cable tied to alerts.
Leak-detection sensors or moisture-detection cables are specifically designed to detect water accumulation under raised floors, providing the earliest possible warning. These sensors trigger alerts when moisture is present, allowing facilities to respond before water damages equipment or causes downtime. This directly addresses the risk of a chilled-water pipe leak in a server room environment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Add more motion detectors near the racks.
Why it's wrong here
Motion detectors operate via infrared or ultrasonic sensing to identify human movement and are designed specifically for intrusion detection, not for detecting liquid ingress. A leaking chilled-water pipe under a raised floor would produce no moving human signature, so the sensor would remain silent even as water pools beneath the equipment. This measure strengthens physical security but provides zero environmental monitoring for the actual hazard described.
- ✗
Use badge readers on the server room door.
Why it's wrong here
Badge readers are an access control mechanism that authenticates personnel through RFID, proximity cards, or PINs, and they serve to restrict entry and log who enters the server room. They are entirely insensitive to environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, or the presence of water, and they contain no sensor element that could detect a pipe leak. A leak would go completely unnoticed by this system, and staff would receive no alert, so it fails to address the environmental risk.
- ✗
Install smoke detectors only.
Why it's wrong here
Smoke detectors rely on ionization or photoelectric principles to sense combustion particles and aerosols, and they are calibrated to respond to fire signatures rather than liquid accumulation. While smoke detection is critical for fire safety, it would not detect water seeping from a chilled-water pipe; water might only cause a short circuit and smoke minutes later, which is too late for early warning. Thus, installing only smoke detectors leaves the water-intrusion risk completely unmonitored and does not meet the facility's need.
- ✓
Install leak-detection sensors or a moisture detection cable tied to alerts.
Why this is correct
Leak-detection sensors placed under the floor can detect water as soon as it appears, which is exactly what facilities wants here. Early warning lets staff respond before equipment is damaged or a larger outage occurs. For a room below a chilled-water pipe, environmental monitoring is more effective than access control or motion detection because the hazard is liquid intrusion rather than unauthorized entry.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SY0-701 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 SY0-701 exam.