Is an IT Audit role for you?
Even in today's struggling economy the audit industry is thriving and many people are considering a career change into the audit sector. However a complete career change is a big decision and as with any major life change there are certain considerations that need to be made.
Firstly, it is important to have a clear idea of what an IT audit is and what is required from and IT auditor. When discussing IT auditor jobs it’s easy to get confused about the word ‘audit’, which is generally used when referring to investigating the finances of a company. Although an IT audit is not wholly dissimilar, it is not the same as a financial audit.
An IT audit job will be focussed on finding and reducing the risks that are related to the information assets within a company. The audit process will evaluate the information system for availability, integrity and confidentiality. Typically, the IT auditor will be looking at the ‘general control review’ or an ‘application control review’.
The fundamental principle of an IT audit job is to ensure information stored within the system is safe and cannot be accessed by unauthorised persons. This is due to the sensitive nature of much of the information many companies hold.
There are generally 5 main types of IT Audit
- Firstly, an audit of information processing facilities. This is required to verify that the facility is maintained and controlled to ensure the efficacy of all the processing applications under normal conditions and in the event of a disruption.
- Secondly, an IT audit of the information technology systems and applications is conducted to ensure that the systems and applications are sufficient and suitable to the company’s needs.
- Audits of the server, telecommunications, intranets and extranets are also conducted to validate that controls are in place.
- An audit of systems development is done to verify that whilst under development the company’s systems, continue to meet the requirements of the company.
- An audit of the management of IT and the enterprise’s architecture verifies that the information processing is being controlled and run efficiently in an organized structure.
An IT auditor is required to follow these five steps within the process of an IT audit. If this sounds like something you feel you have the skills and expertise to do then view our IT audit jobs and apply now.