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IT GENERAL CONTROLS & THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD Ed Tobias, CISA, CIA, CFE May 11, 2011.

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Presentation on theme: "IT GENERAL CONTROLS & THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD Ed Tobias, CISA, CIA, CFE May 11, 2011."— Presentation transcript:

1 IT GENERAL CONTROLS & THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD Ed Tobias, CISA, CIA, CFE May 11, 2011

2 A GENDA What are IT General Controls? 5 Areas for Review Case Study

3 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? What is a “control”? Process developed by management Provides reasonable assurance: Operations – effective & efficient Reliable financial reporting Compliance – laws & regulations

4 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Used to manage risks “control someone’s behavior” Examples: Policies & procedures Approvals Reconciliations SoD (Segregation of Duties)

5 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Process developed by management Provides reasonable assurance that: Operations – effective & efficient Reliable financial reporting Compliance – laws & regulations Used to manage technology risks

6 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? What’s the difference???

7 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? ITGC affect everything based on technology Passwords Program Changes / System updates Roles / SoD Backups / Recovery 3 rd -party providers

8 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? ITGC are part of the entire system of internal control

9 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? 3 main technology areas: 1.System (servers) 2.Network 3.Applications

10 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? ITGC provide assurance that information systems are working as intended Rely on the information Legal / regulatory compliance Effective / efficient operations

11 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Center for Internet Security Applying ITGC consistently Protects against 85%+ of top vulnerabilities reported by: NIST FBI SANS Institute Computer Security Institute

12 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Without effective ITGC, where is the fraud … Financial statements schemes Asset misappropriation schemes Fraudulent disbursements Theft of assets/inventory Bribery / Conflicts of interest

13 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Without effective ITGC, where is the fraud … Theft of Intellectual Property Financial Institution Fraud Check & Credit Card Fraud Insurance Fraud Health Care Fraud Securities Fraud

14 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Without effective ITGC, where is the fraud … Consumer Fraud – Identity Theft Computer / Internet Fraud Public Sector Fraud

15 What are IT General Controls (ITGC)? Without effective ITGC, where is the fraud … Almost everywhere since we use technology Store information Make decisions

16 5 Areas for Review 1.IT Entity-Level 2.Change Management 3.Information Security 4.Backup and Recovery 5.3 rd -party IT Providers

17 5 Areas for Review Normally done by IT Auditors Technology skills/background Can be performed by Operational/financial auditors IT Security / Compliance

18 5 Areas for Review Need to determine the “key information technology risks” Framework (NIST, COBIT) IT Management

19 5 Areas for Review What 3-5 things keep them awake at night?

20 5 Areas for Review 1.IT Entity-Level Need to understand IT involvement Assess IT complexity Low – COTS, 1 server, 1-15 users High – ERP and/or customized, 4+ servers, 30+ users

21 5 Areas for Review 1.IT Entity-Level Impact to the system? Mitigating controls?

22 5 Areas for Review 1.IT Entity-Level Policies & procedures Acceptable Use Found in Employee Manual

23 5 Areas for Review What about … USB Thumb Drives Your data has legs!

24 5 Areas for Review What about … Smartphones Your data has legs!

25 5 Areas for Review What about … Rogue wireless access points Your network is OPEN!

26 5 Areas for Review Acceptable Use Information Security responsibilities YOU are responsible for your company’s data!

27 5 Areas for Review 1.IT Entity-Level Annual Technology Plan Annual Budget Prioritization of IT projects

28 5 Areas for Review 2. Change Management All changes to system Properly authorized Securely implemented SoD is important!

29 5 Areas for Review 2. Change Management Vendor does changes Access always on? Logging access times? Review key reports before/after changes?

30 5 Areas for Review 2. Change Management Key Spreadsheets Locked down? Protected formulas? Restricted access?

31 5 Areas for Review Impact of Spreadsheet Errors Data entry error of $118,000 $11M severance error $30M spreadsheet error $644M misstatement Statistics from 2006 ACL White Paper – Spreadsheets

32 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Physical Security Passwords User IDs Roles in the system Administrators / Super Users Logging Encryption

33 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Wireless Access

34 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Physical Security

35 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Password best practices (NIST) Password length - 8 Complex passwords – 2/4 Upper / lower case Numeric (0-9) Special (!,@,#,$)

36 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Password best practices (NIST) Password history – 90 days Suspended after 3 tries Change initial password Password history – 8

37 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Password best practices (NIST) Mitigating controls No dictionary words Regular training / awareness

38 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security User IDs No sharing No generic IDs (i.e. Clerk1) No default IDs/passwords CIRT.net – 444 vendors, 1800+ passwords

39 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Roles in the system Simplify security administration Regularly reviewed?

40 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Administrators / Super Users “Keys to the Kingdom”

41 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Administrators / Super Users Limited number Required for job duties Audit trail / logging Use only when necessary Periodic review

42 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Logging Slows down system Critical changes/info Protected from Admins Regularly reviewed

43 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Encryption Data at rest WHY? Hacked Internal theft Backups are compromised

44 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Encryption Data in transit WHY? Packet sniffing - Wire theft War driving

45 5 Areas for Review 3. Information Security Wireless Access Wireless Access Policy Encryption MAC Address filtering

46 5 Areas for Review 4. Backup and Recovery Encrypted? Limited access

47 5 Areas for Review 5. 3 rd -party IT Providers “Data in the Cloud”

48 5 Areas for Review 5. 3 rd -party IT Providers Outsource anything Servers (Data Center) Virtual Servers on demand Applications Virus scanning

49 5 Areas for Review 5. 3 rd -party IT Providers SAS70 Replaced by SSAE16 Type 2 Effective June 15, 2011 Financial Reporting

50 5 Areas for Review 5. 3 rd -party IT Providers SOC 2 Security Availability Processing integrity Confidentiality Privacy Risk-based control framework

51 Case Study Profiled in Nov/Dec 2010 and Jan/Feb 2011 issues Fraud mag. Deputy treasurer/controller issued $236,000 in checks through authorized maker scheme Detected through manual reconciliation & computer exception report

52 Case Study $7,148 check cleared the bank but not an outstanding check Uncashed check of $7,148 to a vendor was found in his office Clerk noticed missing exception reports Looked at IT system changes for days w/missing reports

53 Case Study Staff cuts left him as the authorized person for changes IT discovered 2 inactive, unauthorized program changes $215,846 $13,930

54 Case Study What went wrong?

55 Case Study Weak IT Entity-Level controls Improper SoD Poor change management Weak controls in payment dept

56 Questions

57 Contact Information ed.tobias@hillsclerk.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/ed3200


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