5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Your Audit Partner
by Sarah Harvey / September 4th, 2018
What would it cost you if your top client was not satisfied with the quality of your audit? In the current threat landscape, it’s absolutely crucial for organizations to find information security audit firms who take risk factors, security and privacy obligations, and cybersecurity seriously. In order to successfully protect your data and your reputation, you must first choose an audit firm. This can be an overwhelming task, but it’s extremely important. Hiring a firm to provide information security audit and assurance services to your organization is the first step in developing a relationship with the professionals who will be uncovering any unknown vulnerabilities, testing your security and privacy methods, and preparing you for future compliance efforts.
How to Choose an Audit Partner?
In order to successfully protect your data and your reputation through an information security audit, you must first choose an audit firm. This firm is the entity that will have access to your people, our assets, your data, and your risks. This can be an overwhelming task, but it’s extremely important. Hiring a firm to provide information security audit and assurance services to your organization is the first step in developing a relationship with the professionals who will be uncovering any unknown vulnerabilities, testing your security and privacy methods, and preparing you for future compliance efforts. Choosing an audit firm to partner with is a financial investment, but it also requires your time and your resources. We know this is an important decision, so let’s look at a few qualities to consider when choosing an audit firm.
First and foremost, you’ll need to determine if the firm is qualified. When you’re undergoing something as important as an audit, you want to work with the best. For any information security audit, you need to hire a firm that is appropriately qualified and hires experts. What makes someone an expert? It may sound obvious, but for an information security audit, your auditor needs to have information security certifications, such as CISA, CISM, CRISC, or CISSP.
When vetting an audit firm to work with, you should also ask about the experience of their auditors. Would a junior auditor or recent graduate be managing your project? For a quality, thorough audit, you want to work with a skilled professional who has a diverse or extensive background in information security and technology. This enables them to comprehensively test, analyze results, and use those results to support future compliance efforts. You may need to do some extra research to find out this information but hiring a firm with qualified auditors will make a major difference in the quality of your audit.
