Legal and Privacy Issues in Information Security, 3rd Edition

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

Congress passed the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act in 2002.¹³ More commonly known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, it is called SOX or Sarbox in many resources. The Act was named after its sponsors, Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Representative Michael Oxley of Ohio. It was passed in response to corporate scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, and Adelphia. SOX proposed extensive changes to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

SOX moved through both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate at a quick pace. It was originally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in February 2002, just months after the Enron scandal became public. On July ...