IS Audit

Information System Audit

Information systems audit, is a management controls examination within an Information technology (IT) infrastructure. The evaluation of obtained evidence determines if the information systems are safeguarding assets, maintaining data integrity, and operating effectively to achieve the organization's goals or objectives. These reviews may be performed in conjunction with a financial statement audit, internal audit, or other form of attestation engagement.


Auditing

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. Internal auditing is a catalyst for improving an organization's governance, risk management and management controls by providing insight and recommendations based on analyses and assessments of data and business processes. With commitment to integrity and accountability, internal auditing provides value to governing bodies and senior management as an objective source of independent advice. Professionals called internal auditors are employed by organizations to perform the internal auditing activity.

Know More

External Audit

Guidelines for an external audit to ensure quality assurance specify the policies and procedures associated with assessing and verifying the reported data. In contrast, internal audit guidelines describe how to collect, manage and report the data. Additionally, these external guidelines examine the underlying systems. Guidelines for an external audit instruct auditors on how to assess a company's current performance and ability to reliably meet quality criteria. Quality management professionals execute financial statement, compliance or operational audits to help companies manage risk, control quality and limit legal liability. External auditors don't work for the companies they audit and must bring any indications of fraud to the company manager's attention.

Know More

General Audit

A general controls review attempts to gain an overall impression of the controls that are present in the environment surrounding the information systems. These include the organizational and administrative structure of the IS function, the existence of policies and procedures for the day-to-day operations, availability of staff and their skills and the overall control environment. It is important for the IS auditor to obtain an understanding of these as they are the foundation on which other controls reside. A general controls review would also include the infrastructure and environmental controls. A review of the data center or information processing facility should cover the adequacy of air conditioning (temperature, humidity), power supply (uninterruptible power supplies, generators) and smoke detectors/fire suppression systems, a conducive clean and dust free environment, protection from floods and water seepage as well as neat and identifiable electrical and network cabling.

Know More

Baseline Audit

Your security policies are your foundation. Without established policies and standards, there's no guideline to determine the level of risk. But technology changes much more rapidly than business policies and must be reviewed more often. Software vulnerabilities are discovered daily. A yearly security assessment by an objective third party is necessary to ensure that security guidelines are followed. Security audits aren't a one-shot deal. Don't wait until a successful attack forces your company to hire an auditor. Annual audits establish a security baseline against which you can measure progress and evaluate the auditor's professional advice. An established security posture will also help measure the effectiveness of the audit team. Even if you use different auditors every year, the level of risk discovered should be consistent or even decline over time. Unless there's been a dramatic overhaul of your infrastructure, the sudden appearance of critical security exposures after years of good reports casts a deep shadow of doubt over previous audits. If you don't have years of internal and external security reviews to serve as a baseline, consider using two or more auditors working separately to confirm findings. It's expensive, but not nearly as expensive as following bad advice. If it isn't practical to engage parallel audit teams, at least seek a second opinion on audit findings that require extensive work.

Know More