The article I found that I want to talk about is “Internal audit and
cybersecurity in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.” The trend
mentioned in the article that I think could be the most concerning
moving forward is about how there are now real concerns with
employees accessing company networks and information on
unsecured internet connections and what that means for risk
assessment and the cybersecurity aspects of auditing.
In the article, the author Fraser Doig speaks about the concerns
regarding internal auditing in 2020 in the direct aftermath of the
Covid outbreak and how auditors were handling audits that year but
as we now know, the corporate landscape as a whole has been
changed by the pandemic, at least for the foreseeable future. Mr.
Doig speaks about how cybersecurity is a major issue as criminals
have used the pandemic as an opportunity to utilize technology to
carry out their crimes at a much higher rate by using social media and
sites like LinkedIn to target specific employees with phishing
attempts to compromise business email and gain access to company
information. He lists several cybersecurity challenges in these new
times and then suggests ways for auditors to collaborate with
companies to help mitigate risks and help train employees.
What I find most concerning is the inherent risk that remote work
brings to the company. For all the good it can do for productivity and
employee retention, from an auditing perspective, it poses a massive
challenge from an internal control and data security standpoint.
Completing a risk assessment for a company with a significant portion
of its workforce working remotely could be a massive undertaking
where professional judgment is utilized at a much higher
concentration with less data informing that judgment. With
employees being allowed to work remotely on a full-time basis now,
we are seeing a rise in employees working while on trips, in hotels,
with the main concern being that they are connecting to company
infrastructure on unsecured Wi-Fi connections that could be
compromised. As auditors, it is not just the rise in technology on the
audit side of things that will be an adjustment moving forward but
also the changes in how companies use technology to complete their
business on a daily basis that auditors will have to adapt to and work
with the companies to ensure that the same level of assurances can
be given with the audit opinions as before.
References
Doig, F. (2020, June 2). Internal Audit and cybersecurity in the wake of the coronavirus
pandemic. Ideagen. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from
https://www.ideagen.com/thought-leadership/blog/internal-audit-and-cybersecurity-
in-the-wake-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic
