Research On The Application Of COBIT To IT Audit Of Securities Companies

Only after a securities company developed to a certain scale can IT systems beconstructed. There are two reasons make the management job of securities companies inthe urgent need of IT systems support. First, with the rapid development of one SecuritiesCompany, the previous management job carried out by the hands cannot keep up with theexpanding of the company’s scale and business. Second, computerized business processingstandard of securities brokerage department has been continuously improved. In fact, manydepartments are benefited from IT systems. Firstly, the audit systems not only becomeon-site, but also collect real-time data from the branches for off-site audit. Secondly, as forthe financial systems, for one hand, the pressure of financial staff is relieved. For the otherhand, what is the most important is that the decision-makers can get an idea of thecompanies’ financial situation and detect problems in operations promptly. Thirdly, thebusiness statistics and reports systems analyze the branches’ business conditions frommultiple sides, and form kinds of financial reports to aid the administration department inknowing the branches better. However, since our IT audit is in its infancy, many securitiescompanies’ exploration of IT audit is still in the initial stage, as well as the frameworks andregulations are yet to be perfected.In this essay, the writer first suggests introducing the Control Objectives ForInformation and Related Technology, COBIT for short, to the IT audit of securities industry,further refining the principal construction and implementation of7aspects, IT principle, ITarchitecture, IT infrastructure, IT application, IT input, IT human resources, IT safety andrisk controlling system, which is later integrated into the4controlling fields of COBIT, inorder to ensure the effective assignment and control of IT decision-making’s responsibilityand power, finally proving the objective that the IT systems’ usability, safety and efficiencycan be improved with the aid of IT audit combing with COBIT.