IT Auditing - Why It's a Smart Investment

We have all heard the term "Audit" and most of the time it makes us cringe. The first thing that we think of is someone in a suit coming into our organization and poking holes in our Technology, People and Processes that we have built based on the needs of our company and business. However, this is not always the case. There are some times where IT Auditing is a smart investment, here are a few:

• Protect Your Investment - Think about your organization for a minute. You spend tens of thousands of dollars on hardware and software on a yearly basis but when was the last time that you conducted an audit of those resources? How do you know what you truly have operating in your environment? When was the last time that you conducted a true inventory of the hardware and software that you have in your environment? The answer is probably never as these items require time and resources, two things that most organizations are short on. Conducting an audit allows you to understand what technology you are using and what inherent risk that presents to your organization and business.
  
• Independent, Objective Perspective - Think about that for a minute and the value that can bring to an organization. You spend your time implementing technology and doing a risk assessment of the potential problem areas that the technology might introduce to your organization before implementation. But what about post mortem, after the technology is implemented? Having an objective, independent third party audit your environment can point out holes that you did not think were present, or in some cases didn't want to admit might be present. Having that outside perspective of a reputable auditor is essential to get a true understanding of your IT Controls and how they are performing.

• Ensure Future Success - By identifying your current state of IT Controls, you are able to then provide an effective remediation plan in place, ensuring your future success. In addition, there might be some things that an IT Audit points out that might be of significant value to your organization that you had not thought of, such as an Incident Response Plan designed to be used to respond to an incident that threatens your organization and/or the data that it holds. 

So there you have it, some great reasons as to why you should consider having an IT Audit done on your technology environment. For more information, click on the button below to download the Compass IT Compliance IT Auditing brochure.