IT Audit Checklist Series

Slow laptops may be annoying for individual employees, but for businesses they can cost significant revenue and reputational damage. IT audits provide valuable insights into network performance, costs, and protocols – providing crucial evidence of potential revenue losses and reputation damage.

IT audits can also evaluate the systems development process used for creating new software applications and systems, including testing procedures designed to ensure quality and security.

1. Review Security Protocols

Poor cyber hygiene threatens not only individual privacy, but can be equally damaging for a company’s infrastructure. Therefore, it’s vital that companies conduct regular internal security audits in order to ensure their IT infrastructure remains uncompromised while meeting company objectives in terms of costs, speeds and protocols.

An effective security audit must take into account numerous aspects, from employee training procedures and data backup strategies, to physical security. A review of office building security might include checking that proper signage is placed around potentially hazardous machinery or workspaces as well as whether its security cameras and access control systems are functioning appropriately.

If an IT audit reveals any security gaps, devise a plan to close them immediately. Appoint a primary owner and establish a remediation timeline to ensure these issues are quickly addressed; to facilitate this process use project management software such as G2 Track.

2. Review IT Logs

An IT audit should evaluate the security protocols en place at an organization, evaluating them to ensure data doesn’t become stolen or compromised by cyber threats. Furthermore, an IT audit should assess their system for recording and documenting them so they’re always updated.

An IT audit should include an assessment of the process for reporting cybersecurity incidents. This is important to ensuring any incidents are quickly documented, which will reduce further problems or penalties such as fines or lawsuits from occurring.

An IT audit should also assess the physical security of IT infrastructure, such as whether servers are kept in locked rooms and employees must swipe security badges to enter. Furthermore, an audit should evaluate processes in place for testing data backups and restoring them after disaster strikes – an essential step toward minimizing downtime for an entire business. To maximize effectiveness and avoid costly downtime incidents altogether, this process should ideally take place alongside an inventory list which tracks hardware assets and software installations.

3. Review Incident Reports

Every employee account represents an opportunity for hackers, and therefore an IT audit should include an examination of both employee passwords and policies that govern them – specifically whether these passwords are strong and unique, or whether employees must change them regularly. Furthermore, an IT infrastructure log review should take place, to show how changes are tracked and documented.

An IT audit should evaluate any cybersecurity incidents experienced by the organization and how quickly reports of those incidents were processed. Not only does this allow businesses to pinpoint areas needing additional security measures, but it also ensures they follow appropriate protocols when reporting data breaches to regulators or customers.

Companies operating within various industries must abide by numerous regulatory compliance standards such as HIPAA, SOX, PCI DSS and GDPR. As part of an IT audit, it’s essential that regulatory standards such as these be evaluated to verify if your organization is in line.

4. Review Software Licenses

Software license agreements often include provisions that limit how a licensed product can be used, including restrictions on copying beyond what is specifically allowed and reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation of software. Furthermore, such contracts often stipulate clauses pertaining to disclosure to third-parties such as consultants and contractors (subject to confidentiality obligations) as well as making documentation accessible.

Some IT infrastructures must comply with regulatory standards like HIPAA, SOX and CCPA; an IT audit should evaluate compliance to these laws to ensure your organization remains compliant.

IT auditors can use tools such as Black Duck SCA to quickly identify open source components within a codebase and flag legal compliance issues, enabling them to quickly understand its scope and prioritize remediation measures. Such analyses also serve to inform reviews of overall technology architectures; ultimately leading to enhanced security and performance within IT infrastructures.