Abstract
M. Com. (Computer Auditing)
and peer-to-peer have taken the world by storm. Dramatic changes have taken
place in the information technology of organisations that have opted to follow this
trend in the quest for greater flexibility and access to all those connected.
Though technology has already had far-reaching effects on business, many changes
are yet to be seen. The threats associated with the continuing developments in
computer technology have resulted in many traditional internal control processes
changing forever.
Although, according to the above, it is fairly common that the client-server
technology brings with it new threats and risks with internal control processes
having to change to address these threats and risks, not all areas have been
addressed yet. It is therefore clear that computer audit has a role to play. The main objective of this short dissertation is to shed some light on the problem
described above: How will the changes wrought by the client-server technology
affect the traditional audit approach? In other words, how will the computer
auditor narrow the gap that has originated between traditional established audit
procedures and an audit approach that meets the new challenges of the
client-server environment?
This will be achieved by pinpointing the audit concerns that arise due to the
fundamental differences between the traditional systems environment and the new
client-server environment...