The Salient Notes On IT Auditing

By Daniel Roberts


Auditing is basically a thorough review and evaluation of books of accounts. All companies either private or public keep some sorts of financial records. The records are supposed to be prepared by the company accountant. It is not the work of the auditor to maintain proper books of accounts but the company accountant. IT auditing is basically an audit of a company IT systems, operations, management and related processes.

IT audit is simply defined or known as examination that encompasses or comprises of review and also evaluation of all automated information systems. The audit also reviews non-automated processes and also the interfaces among them. Before any audit is done planning should be done. Planning for IT audit usually involves the following two major steps.

First and foremost, an auditor is required to gather enough information and carry out some planning. The second step is gaining a good understanding of all existing internal control structures. Many organizations today are embracing risk based audit concept or approach. This approach is used to simply assess risk and also help an information technology auditor make informed decision.

On the other hand, external auditors are very independent in their work. They are contracted to work for the company shareholders for period not exceeding one year unless repointed again for another term. External auditors do not report to the company management but instead report to shareholders of that company.

The last objective is to check any instances where the information technology system is being used extravagantly and where there are gross inefficiency tantamount being wasted. Technology is changing the way things are done in an organization. Today information can be processed online and also be stored online. With reference to city Sydney, auditors are required to observe strict professionalism to avoid being compromised.

Request from the management or outgoing auditor to give you previous years audit report or result. Identify and evaluate the impact of any recent financial information on the company. Evaluate any existing regulatory statutes that affect the company and lastly identify any presence of inherent risk and assess it. City Sydney has several auditing firms that can offer IT audits.

IT audits are very important since they provide assurance to companies that information systems are properly protected. The audit will also provide reasonable assurance to the users of IT systems that the information they get from the system is reliable. The system should also be managed properly to achieve the organizational intended benefits.

Thumb drivers can also be stolen or in some cases misappropriated making the system to produce wrong data or information. Inherent risks are known to exist independently of such audits. The risks can occur simply because of the business nature. The auditor should identify the following items to make it easy for him to understand internal control structure that exist already.

The following items should be identified, control environment, detecting risk assessment, control procedures among others. The following are also worth noting that is control risk assessment and equate total risk. Once IT auditor has necessary information which is sufficient enough, they can commence the planning process. Areas to be audited need to be selected by the auditor.




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