Synthesizing the Results of an Internal Audit Checklist

Internal audits are an integral component of an information security framework, helping identify areas prone to risk while offering solutions for improvement.

The QI team identified reasons for low compliance to checklists, which they then organized into themes and displayed on an Ishikawa fishbone diagram. Reminders were placed on computers and whiteboards for staff, and the team encouraged staff to take a momentary pause at each stage before moving forward with tasks.

1. Plan the Audit
An internal audit should result in a comprehensive file of documentation filled with notes, findings and suggestions for improvement. All this should then be summarized into an official audit report that can be shared with company management as well as any affected departments.

Dependent upon the specific infrastructure needs of each company, this may involve interviewing employees, observing processes, and reviewing documents and records. It’s crucial that this documentation be thorough and clearly demonstrate any areas of compliance as well as any areas requiring improvement or that pose risks to ensure proper risk analysis.

Once an audit is complete, it’s essential that a plan be put in place for addressing any findings or risks identified during its execution. Issues should be documented and assigned a primary owner along with a remediation timeline in order to ensure timely resolution and reduce noncompliance risks while assuring all business processes are running efficiently.

2. Conduct the Audit
Once the audit has taken place, your team may be left with an abundance of notes, findings, and recommendations to process. By drawing upon their goals as previously established, help your team to narrow the scope of their internal audit to focus on what truly matters.

If an IT audit reveals that your organization is failing to adhere to appropriate procedures for reporting cybersecurity incidents, evaluating the incident reporting process itself to ensure its complete and accurate nature is essential to avoiding fines or lawsuits based on inaccurate data or reports.

As soon as your IT department detects that some employees are using outdated software with known vulnerabilities, it is vital that a plan be devised to address them. You can do this by assigning primary owners and remediation dates for each risk and creating an ongoing process for closing gaps moving forward – this will prevent similar risks from reoccurring in future years while simultaneously improving company processes.

3. Analyze the Results
After an audit is complete, its results must be documented and assessed to gain insight into the current state of processes within a company and whether they comply with industry standards and regulations. An internal audit can also help businesses ensure they run efficiently by improving overall operations of a business and using its results for improvement purposes.

An internal audit that uncovers employees with poor cybersecurity hygiene or weak passwords could allow IT department to educate staff about best practices for protecting company data, thus decreasing the risk of hackers breach and recovery time after attacks. Alternatively, internal audit results can also help companies prepare for external audits by uncovering gaps and areas for improvement – helping optimize business processes while meeting regulatory requirements.

4. Recommendations
A quality audit report includes specific recommendations that management can implement to address identified issues. These suggestions must be reasonable and take into account both business acumen as well as resources and goals of the company; adding another employee would not be considered appropriate advice.

Action plans must be realistic for the department audited, while also complying with organizational security protocols. Furthermore, to avoid assigning blame and ensure buy-in from audited departments.

Idealy, audited departments will complete and submit to auditors a Recommendation Implementation Status Summary (RISS) document detailing implementation dates as stated in their final audit report. This should then be updated and distributed periodically for review by managers and the Director; RISS forms should also note any recommendations currently unimplemented or overdue with specific dates for their completion.