（1998）The electronic auditor.pdfVIP

AUDITING/TECHNOLOGY The Electronic Auditor Wave good-bye B Y G L E N N L . H E L M S A N D J A N E M A N C I N O to the paper trail . ew technologies are out there—^you may even have heard of most of them. But how will they affect the audits you perform? To help you sort through advances, the computer auditing subcommittee of the AlCPA ASB identified 11 key technologies practitioners should be aware of when planning financial statement audits. The technologies fall data transmission. Physical security measures include stor- into three broad categories. The first contains one compo- ing backup files offsite and keeping equipment behind nent—security. The second group consists of communica- locked doors . Inadequate security is especially trouble- tions technologies that allow transmission of financial and some in entities that rely heavily on electronic data inter- other data without a paper audit trail. Th e other highly change (EDI) or the Internet for busine.ss transactions. ranked technologies are independent of the rest and include the year 2000 (Y2K) issue and outsourcing. The technolo- Elertrnni r rnmmfirre . Thi s is actually a group of gies are listed below from the most to the least significant. technologies including EDI , electronic funds transfers (EFTs) and automated teller machines (ATMs). The ma- MAJOR ISSUES, MAJOR CONCERNS