IT Processes
Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT)4 provides excellent coverage of IT processes. An IT process, according to COBIT, can be classified into one of four specific domains:
Plan and Organize (PO)
Acquire and Implement (AI)
Deliver and Support (DS)
Monitor and Evaluate (ME)
A total of 34 IT processes are listed within these four domains, as shown in figure 1.
Whether or not a fraud is likely to occur in each of the identified IT processes is debatable. To better understand if a fraud is likely to occur, the fraud triangle hypothesis, developed by criminologist Dr. Donald R. Cressey, should be considered by all auditors.5 According to Cressey, three factors, each of which is briefly described in figure 2, are associated with any person who commits fraud.
Since there is a human association in any IT process, regardless of the IT system's degree of automation, the possibility of a fraud should always be considered.