（1998）Audit of Information Systems：The Need for Cooperation.pdfVIP

Audit of Information Systems: The Need for Cooperation Leon Strous1 De Nederlandsche Bank NV, Internal Auditing Department, Westeinde 1, 1017 ZN, Amsterdam, The Netherlands strous@iaehv.nl Abstract. The purpose of auditing an information system is to assess, among others for the organisations’ management, that the system functions in the way it was intended. Because of the speed of developments in technology and the increasing complexity of infrastructures and information systems, auditing information systems is becoming more and more difficult. Knowledge of many aspects of information technology is required in order to give an opinion on the quality of information systems. Since it is nearly impossible to combine all this expertise in one person, co-operation between several disciplines is necessary. This paper will give an introduction to the different aspects of it-auditing in general and will demonstrate the difficulties that it-auditors face when, for example, auditing an electronic commerce system. It will indicate the need for co-operation and it will be concluded by suggesting solutions for the auditors’ problems. 1 Introduction 1.1 IT-Auditing IT-auditing (also referred to as ict-auditing, edp-auditing or information systems auditing) is a relatively new profession. That is one of the reasons why many definitions for IT-auditing exist, which is not uncommon also in other areas of information technology. One of these definitions is: