While innovation and emerging technologies are imperatives for any organization looking for a competitive edge, they have created challenges for the IT audit industry. To provide insights on the challenges that IT auditors face, ISACA and Protiviti’s 8th annual audit research project, the 2019 Global IT Audit Benchmarking Study, has recently been released. The study contains revealing insights into the key challenges impacting IT audit professionals; the top skills in demand in the profession; and takeaways, analysis and recommendations for business leaders.
This survey of 2,252 chief audit executives (CAEs), internal audit professionals, and IT audit vice presidents and directors worldwide found that the top 5 technology challenges faced are:
- IT security and privacy/cybersecurity
- Data management and governance
- Emerging technology and infrastructure changes—transformation/innovation/disruption
- Staffing and skills challenges
- Third-party/vendor management
Data management and governance jumped to second place from the 10th spot in the 2018 survey. The findings also show that the top skills that organizations are looking for their IT auditors to have are expertise in advanced and enabling technologies, critical thinking, and data science. Additionally, a main takeaway is how essential it is for the audit and IT functions to have a strong relationship.
“One of the prominent themes in this year’s survey is the importance of partnership between audit and the IT function, which is particularly essential in the area of risk management,” said Robin Lyons, CISA, CIA, ISACA technical research manager. “As these 2 groups work together, risk management becomes a shared, real-time effort that reduces guesswork by IT audit as to what project challenges and risk truly exist.”