Convivo Technologies

IT Auditing

An information technology audit, or information systems audit, is an examination of the controls within an Information technology (IT) infrastructure. An IT audit is the process of collecting and evaluating evidence of an organization's information systems, practices, and operations. 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.

The goal is to evaluate the organization's ability to protect its information assets and properly dispense information to authorized parties.

• Will the organization's computer systems be available for the business at all times when required? (Availability)
• Will the information in the systems be disclosed only to authorized users? (Confidentiality)
• Will the information provided by the system always be accurate, reliable, and timely? (Integrity)

The IT audit focuses on determining risks that are relevant to information assets, and in assessing controls in order to reduce or mitigate these risks. Implementing Controls can minimize the effect of Risks.

Type of Audits

• Technological innovation process audit. This audit constructs a risk profile for existing and new projects. The audit will assess the length and depth of the company's experience in its chosen technologies, as well as its presence in relevant markets, the organization of each project, and the structure of the portion of the industry that deals with this project or product, organization and industry structure.
• Innovative comparison audit. This audit is an analysis of the innovative abilities of the company being audited, in comparison to its competitors. This requires examination of company's research and development facilities, as well as its track record in actually producing new products.
• Technological position audit: This audit reviews the technologies that the business currently has and that it needs to add. Technologies are characterized as being either "base", "key", "pacing", or "emerging".

IT audits with five categories of audits:

• Systems and Applications: An audit to verify that systems and applications are appropriate, are efficient, and are adequately controlled to ensure valid, reliable, timely, and secure input, processing, and output at all levels of a system's activity.
• Information Processing Facilities: An audit to verify that the processing facility is controlled to ensure timely, accurate, and efficient processing of applications under normal and potentially disruptive conditions.
• Systems Development: An audit to verify that the systems under development meet the objectives of the organization, and to ensure that the systems are developed in accordance with generally accepted standards for systems development.
• Management of IT and Enterprise Architecture: An audit to verify that IT management has developed an organizational structure and procedures to ensure a controlled and efficient environment for information processing.
• Client/Server, Telecommunications, Intranets, and Extranets: An audit to verify that controls are in place on the client (computer receiving services), server, and on the network connecting the clients and servers.