The Audit Industry's Achilles Heel: Startling Technical Competency Gaps Plague 151,000 IT Auditors!
Channel: ThinkChamp
Date: 2022-11-05

In this video, Dr. Blake Curtis highlights how IT auditors’ lack of hands-on skill in information technology influences data breach likelihood and technical evidence interpretation for critical infrastructure (power, water, communication, and banking). This study distinguished what the auditors know (declarative knowledge) from what the auditor can do (procedural knowledge) by creating declarative and procedural knowledge assessment inquiries. 

The study’s population consisted of IT auditors, IT professionals, and cybersecurity practitioners. The primary target, IT auditors, either currently or previously, worked in first and second-tier audit firms like Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, RSM Tenon, BDO, Grant Thorton, and Smith & Williamson. The study collected survey/assessment responses from 108 IT auditors and 108 subject matter experts (SMEs) and can be generalized to 151,000 IT Auditors in the industry.


The study leveraged the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) ’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) framework and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) to measure IT auditor and SME competence. Specifically, this study utilized NICE’s Security Control Assessor & IT Program Auditor work roles, tasks, and knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs).

📃Security Magazine publication
https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/98555-technical-competency-gaps-in-151-000-it-auditors-in-the-audit-industry

📃Creating the Next Generation Cybersecurity Auditor: Examining the Relationship between IT Auditors’ Competency, Audit Quality, & Data Breaches
https://www.proquest.com/docview/2680312317?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

🧑🏾Dr. Blake Curtis
https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginaldblakecurtis/

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