Complete Guide to the CITP Body of Knowledge

INTERNAL CONTROLS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GENERAL CONTROLS (“ITGC”)

Dimension 3

The concepts of internal control are critical to providing reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes and users of those reports, as well as business processes, IT operations, and financial reporting for internal purposes for those in business and industry. IT general controls have objectives that relate to the overall management of the IT function of the business enterprise. The level of effectiveness of ITGC affects the degree of IT-related risk the entity has, which could adversely affect its business operations and/or financial reporting, and directly impact the reliability of application controls. The concepts of information security are beneficial to an effective system of internal controls, including identifying, designing, implementing, and monitoring systems and processes used to enable the security of information and data.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. To understand the internal controls frameworks and how to integrate them with financial reporting

2. To understand management considerations of internal controls

3. To understand issues in preparing an IT audit plan associated with internal controls

4. To understand the five basic areas of ITGC and how to assess the effectiveness of those controls: the control environment, change management, logical and physical access security, backup and recovery, and service providers ...