Critical Thinking? How about just Thinking?

It seems to me that auditing as a profession is not full of critical thinkers, much less thinkers.

If you read my last post about auditor judgment, I’m struggling with some of the junior auditors that I’m working with.

But I’m also struggling with quite a few of the senior auditors that I work with, those that are my peers (which means they peer at what I’m doing and how I’m doing it and then continue on their merry paths).

I came to this opinion based on most of the auditors I’ve met through the years across many companies, small and big, and across sectors, including public service. And also by the many articles calling for the profession to do more critical thinking, and yes, it is needed. 

But let’s start with plain old thinking (walk before run).

Quote of the Weak – Auditor Judgment

We recently acquired a new data analysis tool in our department, which prompted some of our newbie auditors to share their misunderstanding of auditor judgment and basic data analysis.

A group of less experienced and newer auditors were selected to try out the new tool before it was rolled out department-wide.

 If you’re not familiar with my ‘Quote of the Weak’ series, I described it briefly in About. For a list of posts in this series, see here. If you haven’t seen one of these posts before, it’s because I haven’t had one in a while…

Create a Help Desk for Data

Companies need to create a help desk for data, similar to the help desk they created for hardware, software, application, network, and user problems.

Can you imagine if companies didn’t have a computer help desk and each department had figure out their own computer issues? If each department had to find, load, configure, and troubleshoot their own hardware and software?

But isn’t that how most companies operate when it comes to data and data projects?

Some Periodic Reviews Provide Little Assurance

I’ve written before how some periodic reviews provide management with little assurance, but management doesn’t realize how little.

My previous post focused mostly on server access. In this post, I want to look at normal user access.

For example, let’s assume your company has a policy that states that all IDs must be assigned within an Active Directory group. In other words, IDs are assigned to groups, and groups are assigned to assets; IDs should not be assigned directly to an asset.

Assume the control you are testing states that user access is reviewed annually.

Blogging about Internal Audit (10 tips)

A looooooong time ago, Leeann asked me to write a post about blogging about internal audit, so here goes. Most of this post applies to blogging on any subject, too.

First of all, there is a dearth of good internal audit blogs, and even less good IT audit blogs. So if you’re thinking about, we sure could use you in the blogsphere!

Writing a blog is hard work, and you often get tired of it. Life finds a way to get in the way. This is my 11th year of the blog (see the first post here), which, ironically, was written by skyyler. Fortunately, we’ve gotten better since that first year.

Blogging about internal audit is like a moon shining in a dark place… here’s my 10 tips…

Mack-the-Auditor Gets Audited! Part 3

This is the third of 3 posts; this post describes how I audited the auditors and my perspective on the whole thing.

Read the first post (background) and the second post (audit results).

Mack-the-Auditor Gets Audited! Part 2

This is the second of 3 posts; this post describes the audit, some speed bumps, and the audit results.

Read the first post here, which provides the background on the audit and the audit’s scope.

Mack-the-Auditor Gets Audited! Part 1

Usually, I’m the one doing the auditing, but this time, I (Mack) was the one who was audited.

It was a great experience for me.

Well, sort of. No one likes being audited (ahem). But it gave me a fresh perspective of how others feel when I audit them.

This is the first of 3 posts; this post contains some background info on the project that was audited, and the second one discusses the audit and the results, and in the third post, I describe my perspective on the whole thing, and some takeaways.

Why this pic on this blog?

Have you ever wondered why I selected the picture above to represent my blog?

This picture illustrates so many aspects and nuances of this blog’s theme.

Here’s your chance to put on your thinking cap, and based on what skyyler and I have written about over the years, tell me what YOU think it represents.

As the comments roll in, we’ll comment on them.

Then, after a few weeks, I’ll peel back my brain and give you a peek inside as to what my reasons were.

Not sure how many of you will take me up on the challenge, but here goes…

 

Don’t Miss all the Free Advice & Info

While you are checking out my blog, make sure you don’t miss all the free advice that’s laying around.

And I’m not talking about the blog posts (those are good too).

Whether you a new reader or you’ve been around since the beginning (2009!), when you find a post you like, don’t forget to do the following after you read it:

1. Look in the upper right corner of the website for my Quick Links. This will take you to multiple posts on these subjects.
2. Use the Search Box to search for key words.
3. When you read a post, check out the Comments. We respond to a lot of questions and provide information that isn’t in the blog posts.
4. Leave a question of your own in Comments. We will respond.

Auditor Struggles, Part 4

This is Part 4 of a Case File series that describes how real auditors tried to apply questionable methods to auditing and data profiling. See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Does the Process X team provide metrics around their process?” I asked.

“Yes,” the most senior auditor replied, showing me the web page where the Process X metrics were displayed.

After reviewing the page briefly, I said, “I see they do metrics by month. You have a year’s data; are you planning to understand how they prepare their metrics and re-calculate them to see if you get the same numbers?”

Auditor Struggles, Part 3

This is Part 3 of a Case File series that describes how real auditors tried to apply questionable methods to auditing and data profiling. See Part 1 and Part 2.

I looked at the third page of the handout and asked, “What is this?”

“A list of Active Directory (AD) groups and the user IDs in each group. I searched AD for any group containing the system name,” the junior auditor said, “and identified these 6 groups. I then downloaded all the members of these groups from AD into Excel.”

Auditor Struggles, Part 1

Some auditors struggle with basic auditing. So when these auditors try to data analysis, well you can imagines how that goes.

I recently met with a team of auditors to give them input on what data profiling would be appropriate to perform. And what analytics might be insightful.

This is Part 1 of a 4-part Case File series that describes how real auditors tried to apply questionable methods to auditing and data profiling. Do not try these methods at home or work. Don’t even dream about them, awake or asleep. 

xLookup Coming to Excel Near You!

Microsoft announced that they are adding a big brother to vLookup named xLookup.

The best things about xLookup: 1) it fixes some of the limitations of vLookup, 2) it is easy to understand and use, and 3) it replaces hLookup also.

Also, vLookup and hLookup are not going anyway, so if any of your colleagues struggle to learn new things, they can continue to use them as is.

A Sneaky Way to Analyze IT Controls

When auditors need to identify and understand IT controls, they search the company intranet, review policies, look for Github repositories, review inventories, schedule meetings, and analyze IT asset data.

I stumbled on a better way to get insight into the IT controls in my company, and I didn’t have to email anyone, do any research, or frankly, anything outright. The IT controls came after me.

Fortunately, the IT controls were blind to the fact that I am an IT auditor. To them, I was just an ordinary bloke. But that didn’t last long (more on that later).

It Began a Few Years Back

It all started a couple years ago when I was building the infrastructure required to support our data analytic efforts in internal audit.

Before You Analyze Data

Before you start analyzing data, you need to 1) know you have the right data, and 2) understand the data and the process that produced it.

This post assumes, of course, that you already accomplished some of the hardest tasks already: figuring out what data you need, where to get it, and actually getting the data. Good luck with that. :)

This post is part of the Excel: Basic Data Analytic series.

How to Profile Data

Before you analyze data, you should profile it.

Otherwise, your analysis may not be too broad, too narrow, or you may miss some important insights or errors.

This post is part of the Excel: Basic Data Analytic series.

Data profiling is developing a profile of your data, just as facial profiles of a person, taken from various angles, helps you size up a person’s nose, identify whether his chin is sagging, and how far apart the person’s eyes are.

Quote of the Weak – Clean Data Manually

If you are in IT, audit, or security (or any other job requiring data analysis), you should NOT be cleaning data manually.

Let me share a recent experience with you….

A young IT auditor texted me at work and asked for some Active Directory user account data that I capture automatically every week, using some scheduled ACL scripts.

If you’re not familiar with my ‘Quote of the Weak’ series, I described it briefly in About. For a list of posts in this series, see here.

Job Automation Quiz

Test how much you know about automation technologies by taking the job automation quiz at Financial Management magazine.

ACL Robotics is NOT Robotics

Contrary to what ACL has been touting as their new ‘robotics’ feature, it is NOT robotics process automation (RPA).

[The ‘robotics’ feature is due out later in 2018. It appears to be ACL’s latest attempt to get you to use their GRC software.]

ACL, via John Verver, defines the term this way in his RPA article: “The idea is a relatively simple one: get computers to perform tasks normally performed by humans, and cut resource and time requirements for many repetitive activities.”

ACL Tip: Be Careful when Renaming Tables

When you need to rename ACL tables, be careful to also rename the associated .fil file also.

Otherwise, you (or your ACL script) might get confused. You might delete the wrong table or .fil file, and create a head-scratching problem.

I know because I confused myself.

Bank Closes Account, Doesn’t Know Why

Recently, a large U.S. bank was found to have created unauthorized accounts; a similar bank closed one of my accounts, but doesn’t know why it happened.

More than a decade ago, I opened a safety deposit box at a local bank (a very large U.S. bank that all U.S. residents would have heard of). This wasn’t my regular bank, as my bank didn’t have such boxes; I only went to this other bank when I needed to access my safety deposit box, which was not often.

Kyle and a Conversation about Analytics

A while back, a reader named Kyle and I had a conversation about analytics.

It started with his reading my Excel:Basic Data Analytics post where I list a number of procedures that anyone can do in Excel.

Kyle said he was expecting some “super sophisticated process & methodology that works like magic.”

Quick Introduction to ACL

If you’ve ever wondered what Audit Command Language (ACL) is, here’s a quick way to find out.

ACL has provided a quick, one-page introduction to ACL. And I mean quick.

It doesn’t explain a lot, but it gives you a quick peek at the basic user interface.

You could call it the ACL Overview for Dummies.

Analytics Blog Debate Heating Up

A debate on this blog over analytics and the future of internal audit is heating up.

A few readers, including our colleague across the sea, AuditMonkey, have dove in, and skyller and I have responded in kind.

Well, not exactly. AuditMonkey has been more kind, to his credit. But I digress.

Download SharePoint Data w/o Rights

At a company I worked at recently, I ran across a Sharepoint site and wondered whether I could download data that I wasn’t supposed to see.

Now I understand the purpose of SharePoint and company intranets is to share data, but even then, some data should be restricted to a limited number of people.

So I decided to check (before doing things like this, you better know How to Stay Out of Jail).

FREE Fraud Investigation Quiz

Quiz yourself to discover how much you know about fraud investigations.

While you may not be tasked with leading an investigation, you might need to work with those working on such an investigation. Either way, do you know the basics?

This quick, 5-question quiz from the Journal of Accountancy will indicate what you know AND what you don’t. And whether you get each answer right or wrong, the answers provide additional information.

Deleting ACL Table Covers A Multitude of Sins

I’m not sure why, but sometimes deleting an ACL table or two covers a multitude of sins, errors, or just plain weird behavior.

No, I don’t get any error messages. That’s the strange part.

I’m talking about strange ACL behavior that you can’t troubleshoot by reviewing the log.

Robotics to Replace ACL, Part 2

Previously I wrote Will Robotics (RPA) Replace ACL?

The short answer is no, and I describe the reasons in that post.

But that doesn’t mean someone won’t try.

Shortly after I wrote my original robotics post, I encountered robotics vs. ACL, part 2.

Security Camera Saves Auditor $60

A security camera helped this auditor recoup $60 recently, 2 months after I lost it.

You might recall my previous encounter with security cameras in Do Your Security Cameras Give Good Customer Service?

I was back in the same store, but this time I had a different problem.

New IT Auditor (and WannaBEs) Master List

Here’s a list of all my posts to-date related to becoming or growing as an IT Auditor, all in one place for easy reference.
I’ll add other posts as they are written.

Use LinkedIn to get an IT Audit job

If you’re looking for an IT Audit job, here’s how to use LinkedIn to get noticed.

In a nutshell, you need to enhance your LinkedIn profile so that everyone knows you’re working hard at learning IT auditor skills.

If you’re already working as an IT auditor, use these suggestions to get noticed more and move ahead (or into another company with more opportunities).

Will Robotics (RPA) Replace ACL?

In my last post, I described Why Internal Auditors Should Care about Robotic Process Automation.

In this post, I’ll explore whether RPA can replace analytic packages like ACL, IDEA, R, and Power BI.

That might seem like a strange question, but a few managers and a VP have asked me just that recently. Here’s how I’ve answered it.

Why Internal Auditors Should Care about Robotic Process Automation

What is Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and why should internal auditors care about it?

RPA is software that imitates human interaction with computer systems to accomplish tasks.

RPA can log into multiple systems, navigate through user interfaces or command line functions to add, update, or download data, create tickets, place orders, or basically anything else a human can do.

Except think (and some vendors would disagree with that).

Audit Management Sometimes Sucks

When internal auditors (or those pretending to be such) do poor work and don’t follow the appropriate audit and IT standards, they are unprofessional. However, I put the blame at the feed of audit management.