| CODE | MGT3171 | ||||||||
| TITLE | IT Auditing | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Business and Enterprise Management | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Domain 1: The Process of Auditing Information Systems - Developing the knowledge necessary to provide audit services in accordance with IT audit standards to assist the enterprise with protecting and controlling information systems. Domain 2: Governance and Management of IT - Provide assurance that the organization has the structure, policies, accountability, mechanisms and monitoring practices in place to achieve the requirements of corporate governance of IT. Domain 3: Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation - Understanding and providing assurance that the practices for the acquisition, development, testing and implementation of information systems meet the enterprise's strategies and objectives. Domain 4: Information Systems Operations, Maintenance and Support - Understanding and providing assurance that the IT service management practices will ensure the delivery of the level of services required to meet the enterprise's objectives. Domain 5: Protection of Information Assets - Understanding and providing assurance that the security architecture (policies, standards, procedures and controls) ensures the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets. Study-unit Aims: To prepare students for the profession of an IT auditor. It's objective is to prepare students for the challenges of managing an audit and the knowledge necessary to complete the task. The study-unit will focus on general computer control, application level control auditing as well as introducing a risk-based management approach. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: • Develop and implement a risk-based IT audit strategy in compliance with IT audit standards to ensure that key areas are included; • Plan specific audits to determine whether information systems are protected, controlled and provide value to the enterprise; • Conduct audits in accordance with IT audit standards to achieve planned audit objectives; • Report audit findings and make recommendations to key stakeholders to communicate results and effect change when necessary; • Conduct follow-ups or prepare status reports to ensure appropriate actions have been taken by management in a timely manner; • Evaluate the business case for proposed investments in information systems acquisition,development, maintenance and subsequent retirement to determine whether it meets business objectives; • Evaluate the project management practices and controls to determine whether business requirements are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risk to the enterprise. • Conduct reviews to determine whether a project is progressing in accordance with project plans, is adequately supported by documentation and status reporting is accurate; • Evaluate controls for information systems during the requirements, acquisition, development and testing phases for compliance with the enterprise's policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements; • Evaluate the readiness of information systems for implementation and migration into production to determine whether project deliverables, controls and the enterprise's requirements are met; • Conduct post implementation reviews of systems to determine whether project deliverables,controls and the enterprise's requirements are met; • Conduct periodic reviews of information systems to determine whether they continue to meet the enterprise's objectives; • Evaluate service level management practices to determine whether the level of service from internal and external service providers is defined and managed; • Evaluate third-party management practices to determine whether the levels of controls expected by the enterprise are being adhered to by the provider; • Evaluate operations and end-user procedures to determine whether scheduled and nonscheduled processes are managed to completion; • Evaluate the process of information systems maintenance to determine whether they arecontrolled effectively and continue to support the enterprise's objectives; • Evaluate data administration practices to determine the integrity and optimization of databases; • Evaluate the use of capacity and performance monitoring tools and techniques to determine whether IT services meet the enterprise's objectives; • Evaluate problem and incident management practices to determine whether incidents, problems or errors are recorded, analyzed and resolved in a timely manner; • Evaluate change, configuration and release management practices to determine whether scheduled and nonscheduled changes made to the enterprise's production environment are adequately controlled and documented; • Evaluate the information security policies, standards and procedures for completeness and alignment with generally accepted practices; • Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of system and logical security controls to verify the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information; • Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of the data classification processes and procedures for alignment with the organization's policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements; • Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of physical access and environmental controls to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded; • Evaluate the processes and procedures used to store, retrieve, transport and dispose of information assets (e.g., backup media, offsite storage, hard copy/print data and softcopy media) to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded; • Evaluate the effect of the IT Governance structure to determine whether IT decisions support the strategic objectives of the firm. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - contribute effectively to the IT audit and control profession; - determine their impact on the control process and audit procedures; - communicate the evidence collected using the appropriate tools and techniques. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: 1) CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) Review Manual (Latest version) (ISACA) 2) ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) Journals |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Alan Alden |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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