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: