The auditor may also need to consider some other key factors which will influence the
effective application of controls within the IT system.
Such of these factors include the following:
• Whether processing is centralised or decentralised
• The complexity and level of customisation of the IT system
• The availability of skilled and experienced audit staff.
Once a decision has been made to evaluate IT controls, there are two major types of controls
in computerised systems to be considered.
General controls:
• These are controls over the environment in which the computer system is operated.
Broadly speaking, this type of control includes:
organisational controls
systems development controls
maintenance controls
access controls
other general controls
As set out above, the key audit objective when reviewing general IT controls is to ensure that
the integrity, availability and confidentiality of the data is appropriately controlled. In order to
meet this objective, the auditor will look to identify and test relevant control activities under
each of the general control categories as follows: