I started my career in the finance department during a time when manual accounting systems were mostly used. My true passion since childhood, however, was in IT. I read IT books about programming and networking in my leisure time and started taking courses step by step – graphic designing, software designing and networking.
A few years later I got an opportunity in another organization to work in the internal audit department, and that is when my career really took off. I started reviewing transactions, investment plans, treasury, budgets and financial statements. To truly add value in business operations, I decided to join ISACA and earned my CISA certification. I then felt more confidence in giving my opinions and recommendations related to IT agreements, policies, budgets and investments. When I look back, I realize how ISACA has changed my career and helped enable me to confidently address risk management, data privacy, security, cloud storage, digitalization and a range of other topics. I feel proud to be an ISACA member, as well as Global Volunteer and Director, CISA Certification, for the ISACA Muscat (Oman) Chapter, and to inspire my friends and colleagues to also join and grow with ISACA.
This is a technological era – you have to keep yourself updated as the technology is evolving very fast. Nowadays everything is IoT, cloud and ERP. With everything on the same ERP platform, I can work faster and analyze data more easily in less time, while relying upon controls to prevent errors.
We have to keep updated about changing technology because change never stops, and if we don’t adapt to the change, we will be outdated. Unfortunately, the world is passing through a challenging time because of COVID-19 and its impact on the global economy. Some organizations will close while others are struggling to survive by reducing their expenses. The organizations with strong IT and risk management capabilities, who can adapt to their employees using video conferencing and working from home securely, will be best positioned to survive. I am proud to play a part in those successes as an IT auditor.