IT / Technology Audit
Service description
An information systems audit, also known as an IT audit, is a systematic examination of an organization's information technology infrastructure, policies, and procedures. It evaluates the effectiveness of IT controls in safeguarding assets, maintaining data integrity, and ensuring the overall alignment of IT with organizational goals. Essentially, it's a way to assess the security, reliability, and compliance of an organization's IT systems.
Common industries
Any business running its own IT systems, especially one also undergoing a financial audit.
ROI
Surfaces control gaps before they become findings or incidents, and satisfies auditors and customers who ask about your IT controls.
Benefit
An independent assessment of your IT general controls and systems — access, change management, operations — often needed alongside a financial audit.
Why get it
A financial audit tests financial controls, not IT general controls; a business whose financial systems depend on IT, or that needs to show a customer or auditor its systems are controlled, needs the IT controls tested on their own.
When you benefit
Often annual, timed alongside a financial statement audit that relies on the same systems, or after a significant system change, migration, or new application goes live.
What it costs
Usually a fixed fee, scoped to the number of systems and applications in scope.
When you pay
Commonly billed as one fee once fieldwork is complete, or in stages tied to planning, testing and reporting for a broader engagement.
Other costs
Fixing a control gap the audit finds — new access controls, change-management processes, or system configuration — is separate from the audit fee.
Risks to know
An audit only covers the systems and controls actually in scope, so leaving one out creates a blind spot a later audit or incident can expose. A gap identified but left unaddressed carries the same exposure a real incident would find.
When risks arise
Findings are most useful acted on right after the report, while the context is fresh; a gap left open past the next system change or audit cycle is easy to lose track of.
The process
The auditor scopes the systems and control framework to be tested, reviews configurations, access controls and change-management processes, and tests operating effectiveness. It documents any gaps and reviews findings with the business before issuing its report.
Your commitment
The business gives the auditor a list of systems and applications in scope, access to review configurations and controls, and a technical point of contact who can answer questions about how systems are set up.
Documents to gather
- Inventory of systems, applications, and vendors in scope
- Current access-control and change-management policies
- User-access and permission lists for key systems
- Results of any prior IT audit or assessment
Helpful reading
- Considering IT risk during audit risk assessment procedures — Journal of Accountancy
- Cyber Essentials Toolkits — Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Further research
Not open yet
IT / Technology Audit isn’t taking requests yet. Join the waitlist. It is listed in your requests tray.