Security Audits

How Security Audits Can Be Carried Out Most Effectively

Security audits are necessary if you want to get the absolute best from your computer system or software application. The audit can be carried out manually, or by using computer software, depending on exactly what it is you are trying to achieve. A manual audit can do so much to help you uncover potential security holes where vital information could be leaked to competitors, as it will show you the exact path that data goes through from initial input to final archiving. Software audits can also provide vital information, and have the merit of taking up very little in time or resources.

A manual security audit can be, and should be, extremely thorough. It is a good idea to start with meticulous interviewing of all members of staff who have access to the systems. If they have spotted anything unusual, they may be able to give you direct information as to where information is being leaked. More than this, though, is the fact that patterns tend to emerge. Employees have a habit of sharing information, and using techniques they will have learned from each other. Often, you can easily spot where there may be a security risk.

Although they are known as manual scans, they do still involve the use of computer software where it is most appropriate. This is in scanning computer systems to see if there is any vulnerability through viruses, or through other malicious software which could allow data to be harvested and then misused against the interests of the company. The most important part of the audit, though, is analyzing the way people gain access to the system, and how the availability of each application is controlled.

The other side of security audits is the automated side, and this has both benefits and disadvantages. The disadvantages come from the fact that the automated systems have no intelligence to match the human brain. A human auditor may be able to spot a sign that something is wrong, when it would not show up on any computer. Computers can only do what they have been programmed to do, and that alone means that some degree of human intervention is always going to be necessary.

The advantage of bringing in a computerized auditing system is simply the thoroughness with which the check will be carried out. A human would find it virtually impossible to log every file access and every change made to data on an ongoing basis. To a computer bot, such behavior is second nature, and there is no possibility of human error, either. Any irregularity in procedure is going to show up when data is analyzed in this much detail. The best results will always be gained by using a combination of artificial and human intelligence when carrying out security audits.

 

 

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