Embarrassing and costly data leakage, cyber attacks on critical national infrastructure and public systems failure – just some of the uncomfortable reading we have seen in 2012. On top of this, organisations are having to implement aggressive cost-cutting in response to the most challenging economic climate seen in generations. Against this backdrop, it is clear that Internal Audit has a crucial role to play in helping Boards and Senior Management better understand and manage the risks their organisations face.
KPMG’s recently published Executive Summary of the Autumn 2012 IT Internal Audit Conference summarises three key areas of discussion:
- Big Data and Analytics – take control of your data
- Cloud – from hype to reality
- Cyber Threats – get used to it, you are being targeted
IT Internal Audit will be expected to play its part to provide proactive assurance to help their organisations prevent these sorts of headlines from occurring, as well as deal with rising threats of cyber attacks and loss of sensitive data. They will also be required to assure the systems and data aspects of initiatives to prepare for and comply with the changing technology landscape and with greater pressure on costs, audit leaders need to be prepared as business users seek to embrace new ways of working, ranging from the use of social media, cloud computing and 'bring your own device'.
