Preface

IN TODAY’S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, computers are continuing the revolution started in the 1950s. Size and capacity of the equipment grows on an exponential curve, with the reduction in cost and size ensuring that organizations take advantage of this to develop more effective and responsive systems, which allow them to seek to gain competitive advantage by interfacing more closely with their customers. This second edition has been brought up to date with the latest in information technology (IT) approaches such as cloud computing as well as the latest in standards and regulations. The section on risk management has been expanded to include varying risk-analysis techniques available to the IT auditor.

Net technologies such as cloud computing, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic funds transfers (EFTs), and e-commerce have fundamentally changed the nature of business itself and, as a result, organizations have become more computer dependent. The radical changes to business are matched only by their impact on society.

It has become impossible for today’s enterprises of any size and in any market sector to exist without computers to assist with their fundamental business operations. Even the old adage that “we can always go back to manual operations” is today a fallacy. The nature of today’s business environment obviates that option. Even the smallest businesses have found that the advent of personal computers (PCs) with increased capabilities and processing speed, while ...

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