Why Should We Focus On IT Audit?

With the current digitised world, the use of computers has increasingly become important in almost all sectors of the economy and life. This has brought about cybercrimes that have taken advantage of the wide use of computers to enrich themselves by interfering with people’s lives.

Just like other types of audits, the conduction of the IT audit has since become very important. Unfortunately, most businesses shy away from these audits. Instead, they focus on the operational and financial audit.

For any organization to compete with other entities and succeed it has to invest in information technology. This will ensure data integrity, availability, and confidentiality. However, with the increase of external and internal threats, they must invest in IT auditing services.

Unlike other audits, IT audits cover a wide range of communication infrastructure and IT processing including software applications, web services, operating systems, security systems, and client-server networks. These audits are designed to ensure there are no errors with your system that can leave you vulnerable to an attack.

IT auditing evaluates a company’s business operations, internal controls, and changes in the server. Besides focusing on what’s going on, IT audits generate on-demand reports on different aspects of the server so as to satisfy regulatory compliance.

Types of IT Audits

There are three main types of IT audits:

• Financial statements audits
• Performance or value for money audit
• Compliance with applicable standards and policies

The aim of these audits is to confirm whether there are any inaccuracies and inefficiencies in the use of the business IT system. Once the system has identified the risks, it assesses them using advanced controls thus allowing you to think of the best solution to tackle these risks. This type of audit is important for any business that wants to protect its data and information.

Ideal IT audit can generate reports such as

• Security reports that highlight security issues
• Security reports that highlight security issues
• Comparison reports that compare the state or properties of objects
• Modification reports that focus on all changes in server configurations.
• These reports play a very important role in checking the server configuration.

Benefits of IT Audits

Boosts Data Security

After assessing the risks, IT audit control will be identified and assessed. It will then give organizations the opportunity to redesign ineffective or poorly designed controls thus leading to improved security of data. While the COBIT framework of IT controls is mostly used for auditing nowadays there are advanced sets of tools and technologies. These tools allow organizations to detect external and internal threats so as to take immediate action. By instilling confidentiality, integrity, and availability, IT audit ensures data is protected from any outside threat.

Reducing Risks Related to IT

One of the best things about IT auditing is that tackles all risks related to confidentiality and integrity of the information infrastructure and processes. They can also boost the effectiveness, reliability, and efficiency of IT systems by taking care of a wide range of threats through regular assessment and identifications of the risks. After assessing a range of risks it will provide the team with a clear vision on what’s supposed to be done to reduce, eliminate, or simply accept the risks and use IT audit controls. So if you are faced with troubles dealing with any potential risks, IT auditing is the right solution.

Help In Scrutinizing the Control System

The conduction of an IT audit is known for cementing control systems in an organization. This process ensures there is the identification of risks that may affect the flow of work. With the advancement of technology, there are several IT software that can effectively take charge of this. For instance, business software such as Cobit can take care of all matters related to performance indicators, security, important algorithm structures, and goal indicators.

Compliance Status

Without IT auditing, it’s hard for a company to prove that it adheres to all the provisions of regulatory standards and laws such as SOX, GLBA, PCI DSS, and HIPPA among others. Reports generated after the process will show the organization exactly where they are in regards to regulatory compliance. The audit will also highlight areas that need additional work. Regular IT audit will, therefore, save the company from legal issues and fines.

Improves Communications within the Organization

IT audit can improve communication between technology management and business. It creates a dire need for communication. With the conduction of the auditor interviews, the auditor gets an opportunity to tests what’s happening so as to see whether there is a discrepancy between the IT theory and what’s happening in reality. The final work will be writing a detailed report indicating what’s at stake with the organization’s IT system. This will not only improves communication between different departments but also enhance the development of measures and accountability in different departments.

IT Audit Enhances Governance

By serving a critical function, IT audit ensures that all business regulations, laws, and compliances are met thus consequently improving IT governance. This is because the overall IT management team will have a strong understanding of the risks, controls, and value of an organization’s technological development.

Forensics and investigation

When it comes to investigation, IT audit plays a very important role in creating long audit trails of events to specify how what happens today depends on changes made yesterday. Checking these trails and looking for a correlation between them is part of the audit. This comes in handy when it’s time for investigation. Plus the audit shows the before and after the value of every change.

Final Thoughts

While IT auditing is not a simple process, it shows what’s going on in the IT infrastructure of the business. By focusing on the server system it helps establish a testing environment so as to prevent any unwarranted changes.

It also shows which compliance requirements have been satisfied and which ones have not. So if your business is facing problems keeping its data and IT infrastructure secure, it’s perhaps time to invest in an IT audit system that’s tailored according to your business requirements and needs. As a worthy milestone, it needs a lot of attention and focus.

Do reach out to us to discuss about your needs for IT Audit readiness.