– Information security
– Disaster recovery/business recovery • Application controls:
– Tests of control
– Controls embedded in various applications to satisfy
management’s policies and procedures for carrying out
business processes • Physical controls:
– Authorization of service instance
– Segregation of duties (if applicable, IT personnel too)
– Supervision
– Audit trails
– Access controls to systems and data
– Independent verification (performance reports, independent
reviews, audits, error logs, etc.)
Controls are evaluated at three levels: design effectiveness,
implementation and operational effectiveness.
Design effectiveness relates to the ability of the control to
mitigate risks and provide adequate controls over a certain business process or to ensure that policies are enforced within business processes. The control should be able to detect a material misstatement or error in a timely manner.
The second level is whether the control has actually been implemented. It is possible to determine the implementation via a walk-through. SAS No. 109 recommends such a procedure to make that determination.
The third level is whether, on a continuing basis, that control is actually performing as designed (i.e., control effectiveness). Traditionally, financial and IT auditors have used tests of controls as a way to make this determination. This level is the topic of the fifth element, monitoring.
Controls are also categorized as to the area or aspect of the entity as follows: general controls, application controls and physical controls. General controls are controls that in general affect the computer systems (information systems) and information technologies employed by the entity in performing functions (business processes) associated with financial reporting activities. Application controls are computer controls embedded within technologies and systems that are intended to ensure that policies and procedures are carried out in the business processes.
Monitoring
Does the entity have a system of monitoring activities to continuously evaluate and improve the effectiveness of its internal controls?
Monitoring, as mentioned previously, refers to the entity’s ability to monitor the effectiveness of controls as they operate
daily, individually and in cooperation with other controls. Some of the various ways in which controls over monitoring of control effectiveness could be evaluated regarding the risks associated with those activities include:
• Ongoing and separate evaluations on internal controls over
financial reporting
• Identifying and reporting deficiencies
• Assessing the quality of internal control performance
over time
• Putting procedures in place to modify the control system as
needed (add, change, delete)
• Ensuring effective management review of control
system status
• Checking for the absence of monitoring systems, which tends
to allow people to reduce vigilance on controls
• Utilizing relevant external information or independent
monitors
• Analyzing control objectives and their related control
activities
• Reviewing changes to controls since the date of the last
report or within the last 12 months
Conclusion
It is imperative in the IT audit environment, this year and beyond, that IT auditors know how to apply the COSO model of internal controls. This involves not only an understanding the components and other aspects of the model, such as the cross-sectional approach to business units, but also how to develop meaningful and effective audit procedures, such as inquiries or observation, from the COSO model.
Endnotes
1 Statement on Auditing Standards Nos. 104-111 are generally referred to by the term “Risk Suite.”
2 This article should be taken in the context of the IT Audit Basics column in vol. 1, 2006. Please consider reviewing it while reading this article.
3 Much of this paragraph was taken from the COSO web site, www.coso.org.
4 Recently, PCAOB released AS5 to replace AS2, but the importance of COSO in complying with AS5 is the same as it was in AS2.
Author’s Note
In the next issue, the author will further develop this topic with a practical framework for applying COSO to the new risk- based financial audits.