Several years ago these bodies set up a number of task forces to develop several new products. One of the task forces was charged with developing an assurance service addressing systems reliability. This paper summarizes the issues that the task force addressed and the conclusions that it came to, including the development of an assurance service addressing systems reliability, labeled SysTrust. Information gathered from over 100 internal audit directors indicates that internal auditors focus primarily on traditional IT risks and controls, such as IT asset safeguarding, application processing, and data integrity, privacy and security.
Much less work is done on system development and acquisition issues.
Several factors are associated with internal auditors' performance of IT evaluations, including the nature of the audit objective, the prevalence of computer audit specialists on the internal audit staff, and the existence of new computerized systems. To supplement these results, we encourage further research on the efforts of other groups in addressing IT risks. As the accounting profession enters new assurance markets, many decisions as to the best manner in which such services can be provided must be addressed. In this study, we examine the impact of a two tier reporting model on the market demand for assurance services on software product reliability. When a binary report only is available, the market is more confused and chaotic.