Some of you may not know this, but earlier in my career I was an IT auditor (starting with Coopers & Lybrand). In fact, I was a bit of a techie and trailblazer when it came to understanding how the operating and related systems could affect the operation of applications and, thereby, business operations.

I had some fun with this when the IT audit leaders in France contradicted me. I wrote a simple RPG ii program then compiled and ran it twice. I changed a couple of lines in the Linkage Editor so that the results were different.

Anyway, IT audit has been a passion of mine for many years.

So, when I saw that Deloitte has published a piece, The Future of IT Audit[1], I was interested.

Here are some excerpts with my comments:

• In a world where everything from automotive to banking relies upon technology, IT audit methodology needs to change. The future of IT audit should align itself with IT’s new strategic role and to act as an adviser, not solely an auditor.

Comment: being an auditor is being an adviser. That should not be a change.

Comment: what may need to change is that a larger percentage of the audit plan and staffing should be on technology-related risks and opportunities.

• As boards are recognizing a paradigm shift wherein IA takes on a strategic role, they expect IT not just to keep pace, but also to…

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Hear the latest updates on pandemic insurance risk pools in France, Germany and Switzerland by registering for InsuranceERM’s Insurance Risk & Capital EMEA virtual conference, which is being held early next month.

The Insurance Risk & Capital EMEA virtual conference takes place online on 2-3 December.

It combines a mixture of live-streamed and pre-recorded content, as well as offering networking via a virtual event platform.

The future of pandemic cover – and the role of the insurance sector in it – will be one of the current topics discussed at the conference by Axa’s group chief risk officer, Renaud Guidée; Ivo Menzinger, Swiss Re’s head of EMEA public sector solutions; and Tobias Buecheler, head of regulatory affairs at Allianz.

Guidée, Menzinger and Buecheler will explain how to strengthen the industry’s ability to respond to pandemic crises and the importance of public-private partnerships in creating pandemic risk pools that are affordable for all participants.

Other crucial elements covered by these experts include:

• how to fund pandemic insurance risk pools

• what can be learnt from other, similar risk pools

• whether to make the insurance schemes…

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I have to admit, I was a halfway decent senior financial auditor with (what is now) PwC. I was no star. But my life as a recently qualified chartered accountant changed when I was given a couple of career choices.

The first was to follow my heart and relocate to the Paris office. I loved France (and French women, let alone the food), having spent multiple summers there with French families or working in a warehouse in the East of Paris.

The second was to follow my head.

I had been a guinea pig in an experiment involving flowcharting and evaluating the controls over a client’s computer systems. It was weird: I had done my best with the new purple Internal Control Questionnaires (ICQs), but both they and the flowcharts could hardly be seen under the barrage of critical review comments and corrections by the Computer Audit Group (CAG). When I met with the CAG Supervisor to hear in person what he had to say about my pitiful attempt, I have to admit being more than a little upset by his harsh words. He asked if I had listened to a word of the training – and I replied that I had not received any training at all! He went from my greatest critic to an admirer, saying that while I had messed everything up it was a great job for somebody with zero experience or training.

Shortly after that strange episode, I met…

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PARIS, Oct. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Enterprises in France are changing their approach to cyber security, with top executives now becoming involved in decision making, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens Cyber Security – Solutions & Services Report for France finds stricter security mandates like the GDPR forcing enterprises there to enhance their security measures. In response, strategic consulting firms are focusing more on cyber security by acquiring new expertise in vulnerability assessments and related topics. These providers are hiring specialists, announcing new cyber security services, and opening labs for training, experimentation and sandboxing.

“French companies are increasingly focused on improving their cyber security in response to the GDPR and other mandates,” said Lyonel Roüast, partner and president, ISG Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa (SEMEA). “C-level executives are seeking a better understanding on the best ways to avoid, and if necessary, respond to cyber attacks.”

In addition to new…

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IT and application development professionals tend to exhibit risky behaviors when organizations impose strict IT policies, according to SSH.

Polling 625 IT and application development professionals across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, the survey verified that hybrid IT is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down.

Fifty-six percent of respondents described their IT environment as hybrid cloud, an increase from 41 percent a year ago. On average, companies are actively using two cloud service vendors at a time.

While hybrid cloud offers a range of strategic benefits related to cost, performance, security, and productivity, it also introduces the challenge of managing more cloud access.

Cloud access solutions slowing down work

The survey found that cloud access solutions, including privileged access management software, slow down daily work for 71 percent of respondents. The biggest speed bumps were cited as configuring access (34 percent), repeatedly logging in and out (30 percent), and granting access to other users (29 percent).

These hurdles often drive users to seek risky workarounds, with 52 percent of respondents claiming they would…

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