Blog
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Internal Controls to Prevent Financial Statement Fraud
“Cooking the books” is a phrase that refers to falsifying financial statements so one can commit accounting fraud. Perhaps the landmark example of cooking books was Enron, the U.S. energy company coasted on accounting fraud until it imploded in 2001, leading to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act the following year. “SOX,” as the law […]
Tags: Compliance
October 8, 2024
How to Implement Effective Compliance Testing
Compliance testing, also known as conformance testing, is a periodic, independent, and objective assessment of compliance-related processes or controls. As the name implies, you’re testing those controls to see how well they actually work. Compliance testing plays a major role in identifying vulnerabilities in existing compliance risk management controls; many regulations also require testing as […]
Tags: Compliance
How to Define Objectives Under ISMS?
In today’s digital age, protecting your organization’s information assets is paramount. An information security management system (ISMS) plays a crucial role in this endeavor, providing a structured approach to managing and protecting company information. This article explores how an ISMS supports risk management, its key elements, the main security objectives, and how to define and make your organization’s information security objectives both measurable and […]
Tags: Risk Management
October 7, 2024
The Relationship Between Internal Controls and Internal Audits
Any modern organization looking to navigate today’s risk environment successfully needs both strong internal controls and ongoing internal audits. There can, however, be confusion between these two terms. This guide aims to eliminate that confusion by explaining the meaning and importance of internal controls and internal audits. It unpacks the differences between them and explores […]
Tags: COSO
Best Practices for Payroll Internal Controls
Payroll is a crucial business process in any organization because it assures that employees are compensated in full and in a timely manner. Employees assume they will receive their paychecks without delays or errors; it’s a basic expectation. Conversely, payroll delays and errors erode employee morale and productivity — and even lead to enforcement from […]
Tags: Compliance
The Aftermath: Steps to Recovering from a Malware Attack
Malware (shorthand for “malicious software”) is any intrusive software that can infiltrate your computer systems to damage or destroy them or to steal data from them. The most common types of malware attacks include viruses, worms, Trojans, and ransomware. Malware attacks are pervasive, and can be devastating to an unprepared business. Preparing for such attacks also means accepting […]
Tags: Cybersecurity
How to Monitor Your Risk Management Plan
As ever more business operations rely on software systems and online platforms, the range of cybersecurity risks they face become ever more complex. A strong risk management process can help, enabling organizations to detect potential threats, gauge the potential disruption, and implement mitigation plans to minimize the risk of harm. That said, merely implementing a risk management plan is […]
Tags: Risk Management
Third-Party Due Diligence Best Practices
No matter your industry, business relationships with third-party vendors are the most significant risk to your information landscape. Increasingly, companies are adding more Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors to streamline business processes. However, vendor due diligence becomes more complicated as you add new services. What is Third-Party Due Diligence? Third-party due diligence is the process of vetting […]
Tags: Compliance
The Key Differences between FedRAMP A-TO & P-ATO
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) helps U.S. federal agencies assess cloud service providers’ security more efficiently. It aims to protect government data and information systems and promote the adoption of secure cloud products and services by federal agencies. FedRAMP standardizes security requirements and authorizations for SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS cloud services per […]
Tags: FedRAMP
How to Prevent Third-Party Vendor Data Breaches
Third-party data breaches can happen at any time to any organization. This type of breach occurs when a vendor (or some other business partner) holding your company’s data suffers a breach, and your data is exposed. According to the Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, 62 percent of all data breaches happen via third-party vendors. Even worse, IBM […]
Tags: Cybersecurity
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