IT Audit

The word ‘audit' is often associated with the financial world. It refers to an official inspection of an individual's or an organization's accounts. The word also means a systematic review or assessment of something. That is the meaning we are referring to when we use the term IT audit. This kind of audit may also take place along with other assessments (like financial audits) of an organization so that a clear picture of its overall internal functioning can be drawn.

What an IT audit does is to find out the risks that a company faces with respect to its information assets and also evaluating the controls of information so as to minimize these risks. The IT auditor's job is to evaluate the information system for reliability, confidentiality and availability. He or she will have to look at either a ‘general control review' or an ‘application control review.'

There are generally five kinds of audits that are carried out and consist of five stages. The five kinds of audits include an audit of information technology systems and applications. This ensures that that these systems and applications are working reliably, on time and are secure. They also check the input and output so as to see if the are working. The second kind of audit is the audit of systems development. It is done in order to check that the systems, while under development, are up to the standards required by the company. An IT audit also encompasses the management of information technology. With the help of this one can find out whether the management of IT and architecture is in shape. It also checks that the information processing is running smoothly and without hitches in an organized design. Clients or servers, telecommunications, intranets and extranets also need verification. An audit of these is done to ensure that the client, the server and the network connecting the two are all clean. This enables and verifies the security of information being transferred between both parties.

As mentioned earlier an IT auditor works (usually) using five steps during the process of an IT audit. These are planning, studying controls and evaluating the same, testing the controls and sometimes reevaluating and reporting. All these are usually succeeded by a follow-up later on to see if things are still fine or whether there are any new developments.

The IT auditor's brief is to sustain and retain the integrity of the information that is stored in the system, to ensure that it is safe from external attacks and that it cannot be retrieved by unauthorized people or organizations. An example of such information is an organization's private database of its workforce and its clients or suppliers. All this is critical information and must be safeguarded from loss or theft. Its access must be restricted to only those who are authorized to access it. IT is advancing everyday and an IT auditor has the unenviable task of having to stay ahead of the game as the technology moves on. Unless this is done no information can be properly secured and a company will lose valuable information. That is why an IT audit is of great importance in today's world.

IT Audit |