The Information Systems Audit
November 25, 2009
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Chartered Accountants
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The Information Systems Audit
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan
ICAP Auditorium, Karachi
Sajid H. Khan
Executive Director
Technology and Security Risk Services
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Chartered Accountants
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The Information Systems Audit
IS Environment
Back
Office
Batch
Apps
Online Integrated
MIS
Applications/ ERP
DAS
E-Commerce /
Home
Computing
Knowledge
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The Information Systems Audit
Information Technology Audit
The IT audit focuses on determining risks that are relevant
to information assets, and in assessing and evaluating
controls in order to reduce or mitigate these risks.
Any audit that encompasses review and evaluation (wholly or partly) of
automated information processing systems, related non-automated
processes and the interfaces between them.
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The Information Systems Audit
Purpose of IT Audit – Cont.
The IT audit's agenda may be summarized by the following questions:
• Integrity - Will the information provided by the system always be
accurate, reliable, and timely?
• Confidentiality - Will the information in the systems be disclosed only
to authorized users?
• Availability - Will the organization's computer systems be available for
the business at all times when required?
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The Information Systems Audit
Classification of Audits
• Financial audits
• Operational audits
• Integrated audits
• IS audits
• Specialized audits
• Forensic audits
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Audit Objectives
Specific goals of the audit
• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Reliability
• Availability
• Compliance with legal / regulatory requirements
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Types of IT Audits
• IT Policies & Procedures Review and Gap analysis
• Implementation Reviews (e.g. SAP / Oracle / JD Edwards)
• IT Security Reviews
• IT Forensic Investigations
• Application Integrity Reviews
• Business Continuity
• IT Disaster Recovery
These reviews may be performed in conjunction with a financial statement
audit, internal audit, or other form of attestation/special engagement.
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The Information Systems Audit
Types of IT Audits
System Implementation Review - Example
• Business process/application controls
• Report Testing and documentation
• Testing (unit, volume, user)
• Data Cleansing and Conversion
• Segregation of Duties
• Roll out strategies
• IT General Controls
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The Information Systems Audit
Various Standards and Frameworks
• COBIT
• COSO
• SOX
• ICFR
• BASEL II
• ITIL
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CobIT
• A framework with 34 high-level control objectives
– Planning and organization
– Acquisition and implementation
– Delivery and support
– Monitoring and evaluation
• Use of 36 major IT-related standards and regulations
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The Information Systems Audit
ISACA - IS Auditing Standards
Framework
Framework for the ISACA IS Auditing Standards
• Standards
• Guidelines
• Procedures
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The Information Systems Audit
ISACA - IS Auditing Standards Framework
Standards
• Must be followed by IS auditors
Guidelines
• Provide assistance on how to implement the standards
Procedures
• Provide examples for implementing the standards
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ISACA IS Auditing Standards Framework (cont.)
Objectives of the ISACA IS Auditing Standards
• Inform management and other interested parties of the
profession’s expectations concerning the work of audit
practitioners
• Inform information system auditors of the minimum
level of acceptable performance required to meet
professional responsibilities set out in the ISACA Code
of Professional Ethics
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ISACA IS Auditing Standards Framework (cont.)
S1 Audit charter
S2 Independence
S3 Ethics and Standards
S4 Competence
S5 Planning
S6 Performance of audit work
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ISACA IS Auditing Standards Framework (cont.)
S7 Reporting
S8 Follow-up activities
S9 Irregularities and illegal acts
S10 IT Governance
S11 Use of risk assessment in audit planning
S12 Audit Materiality
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ISACA IS Auditing Standards Framework (cont.)
S13 Using the work of other Experts
S14 Audit Evidence
S15 IT Controls
S16 Electronic Commerce
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The Information Systems Audit
Skills and Competence
An ideal background for an IS Auditor
»Business
»Auditing
»Information Technology
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The Information Systems Audit
Skills and Competence (Contd.)
Specialized IS skills may be needed for an auditor to:
• Obtain understanding of the accounting and
internal control systems affected by the IS
environment.
• Determine the effect of IS environment on the
assessment of risk at each level (e.g. process,
account, transactions level)
• Design and perform appropriate tests of control
and substantive procedures e.g. data analytics.
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The Information Systems Audit
IS Audit Resource Management & Planning
• Limited number of IS auditors
• Maintenance of their technical competence
• Assignment of audit staff
• Short and Long term planning
• Considerations
– New control issues
– Changing technologies
– Changing business processes
– Enhanced evaluation techniques
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The Information Systems Audit
Information Technology Audit - Process
• An information technology audit, or information systems audit, is an
examination of the controls within an Information technology (IT)
infrastructure.
• It is a 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.
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The Information Systems Audit
A Typical IS Audit Cycle
• Planning
• Understand the Process(s)
• Walkthrough the Process/Controls.
– Design of control
• Test the Controls
– Operating Effectiveness
• Conclude and Report
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The Information Systems Audit
IS Control Objectives
Internal control objectives apply to all areas, whether
manual or automated. Therefore, conceptually, control
objectives in an IS environment remain unchanged from
those of a manual environment.
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Key Controls
• A key control is a member of a set of controls that
management identifies and relies upon in order to
mitigate the risk of financial misstatement.
• In other words it is the main control that addresses
the risk.
• Key Controls are usually identified by management.
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Compensating Controls
• A compensating control is a control that would
be in place to mitigate the risk of damage in the
event a key control failed.
– Example: Key Control may be approval prior to
access to systems but if it fails then compensating
control might be the monthly monitoring of user
access thus minimizing the risk to a period of one
month.
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Prevent / Detect Controls
Change Management Example
Prevent Controls Detect Controls
Pre-Production Post Production
Production
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The Information Systems Audit
Elements of an Effective IT Audit
•Business •Checklists
Knowledge •Technology Tools and •Work Programs
•Best Practice Methods •Automated Tools
•Guidelines
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The Information Systems Audit
Risk Assessment
Assessing Information Technology risks
• Risk assessments should identify, quantify and
prioritize risks against criteria for risk acceptance and
objectives relevant to the organization.
• Should be performed periodically to address changes
in the environment, security requirements and when
significant changes occur.
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Risk Assessment Treatment
Treating security risks
• Each risk identified in a risk assessment needs to be
treated.
• Controls should be selected to ensure that risks are
reduced to an acceptable level
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Scoping
Areas / Processes in scope Risks identified within the
processes / areas
Application Scoping
Identification of Key and • Application
compensating Controls • Operating System
• Database
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Scoping
IT Governance
• Policies and Procedures
• Compliance
• Security Environment
Application,
Management Databases
Controls Networks etc.
• Strategy • IT General Controls
• DRP • Application Controls
• Security • Optimizing Database
Policy Performance
• Reducing Network
Vulnerabilities
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IT Governance
Entity Level Controls
• Controls at the Company Level that create,
foster, and sustain a controlled IT environment.
Examples:
– IT Strategic Planning
– IT Policies and Procedures
– IT Organization Structure
– Properly segregated duties
– Fraud Identification
– Training and Education
– Monitoring, and Risk Assessment
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The Information Systems Audit
IT General Controls: Layers of Controls
Business
Data
Processes
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The Information Systems Audit
ITGC Domains
• ITGC Domains.
• Program Change Management
• Logical Access
• IT Operations (Backup & Recovery, Job
scheduling, Problem and Incident Management)
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Change Management
• Objective: To provide reasonable assurance that only
appropriately authorized, tested, and approved changes
are made to in-scope systems.
• Types of changes that fall under change management
• Program Development/Acquisition
• Program change
• Maintenance (Ex: Database, Operating System)
• Emergency Changes
• Configuration/Parameter Changes (Ex: Physical hardware
configuration and parameter settings)
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Change Management (cont.)
• Components of the IT Environment:
• Applications
• Interfaces
• DBMS (Database Management System)
• Network and Operating Systems (OS)
• Typical Key Controls
• Changes are Authorized
• Changes are Tested
• Changes are Approved
• Changes are Monitored
• Duties are appropriately segregated
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The Information Systems Audit
Logical Access
• Objective: To determine that only authorized persons
have access to data and applications (including
programs, tables, and related resources) and that they
can perform only specifically authorized functions.
• Levels of the logical access path
• Network / Operating System
• Application
• Database
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Logical Access (cont.)
• General Systems Security Settings
– Platform Specification
• Password Configuration
• Systems User Administration
– New User setup
– Change/Transfer
– Termination
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Logical Access (cont.)
• Privileged Users
• User Access Reviews
• Segregation of Incompatible Duties (SOD)
• Request access
• Approve access
• Provision access
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The Information Systems Audit
IT Operations
• To determine that the critical data is properly backed-up
so that it can be accurately and completely recovered if
there is a system outage or data integrity issue.
• To determine that only appropriate users have the
ability to make changes to job scheduling.
• To determine that there is a problem and incident
management process in place.
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IT Operations (continued)
• Backup & Recovery
• Job Scheduling
• Problem & Incident Management
• Data Center Walkthrough
• Physical Access
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Application Controls
• An application control is an automated control that is
programmed within a system to perform the same
function over and over again.
– Edit Checks
– Validations
– Calculations
– Interfaces
– Authorizations
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Application Controls
Embedded Control – System is programmed to perform the
control as a result of either custom coding or packaged
delivery of that functionality.
Configurable Control – System has the capacity to perform
the control depending on its setup, but may have been
configured differently. Used especially in the context of
ERP systems.
Example – A three way match within an application
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Application Controls - Testing
• Embedded Control
– Re-performance via walkthrough
– Inspection of authorization
• Configurable Control
– Inspect configuration
– Re-performance via walkthrough
– Inspection of authorization
Consider manual overrides and the underlying
ITGCs.
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IT Dependent Manual Controls
• An IT Dependent-Manual Control is any control activity
where both an individual and an IT output are
combined.
Example - System generated report review.
Consider the underlying ITGCs.
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Data Analytics
• Also called “Computer Assisted Audit
Techniques” (CAATs).
• CAATs enable IS auditors to gather
information independently.
• Multiple tools available to perform data
analytics.
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Data Analytics (cont.)
• Functions supported by automated tools
– File access
– File reorganization
– Data selection
– Statistical functions
– Arithmetical functions
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Data Analytics (cont.)
Considerations before utilizing CAATs
• Ease of use
• Training requirements
• Complexity of coding and maintenance
• Installation requirements
• Processing efficiencies
• Confidentiality of data being processed
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Challenges for IS Auditors
• Completeness of the Population
• Time Period Coverage
• Key Control Tools – Scoping
• Additional Procedures – Controls Testing
• Impact on Application/ITDM testing if ITGC not effective
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Communicating Audit Results
• Exit interview
– Correct facts
– Realistic recommendations
– Implementation dates for agreed recommendations
• Presentation techniques
– Executive summary and Visual presentation
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Communicating Audit Results (cont.)
Audit report structure and contents
• An introduction to the report (e.g. objectives, scope,
procedures performed)
• High level Audit findings and recommendations
• The IS auditor’s overall conclusion and opinion
• The IS auditor’s reservations with respect to the audit
• Detailed audit findings and recommendations
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Audit Documentation
• Planning, audit scope and objectives
• Description on the scoped audit area
• Audit program(s)
• Audit steps performed and evidence gathered
• Other experts used
• Audit findings, conclusions and recommendations
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Thank You
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