Digitalization or Digital Transformation.  These are some of the biggest buzzwords in business today as organizations push to move from analog, manual activities and take advantage of automated business processes.  But what impact do these digitalization activities have on internal audit?  A recently published blog post on The Protiviti View explores just that.

For internal audit, that means a larger sphere of IT risk that now spans the breadth of a firm’s in-house operations, including parts of the business that may not have received priority attention from internal audit in the past. That sphere extends beyond the company too, to third-, fourth- and fifth-party vendors entrusted with sensitive customer information and trade secrets.

As organizations embark on these digital transformation initiatives, Internal Audit should strive to be an active partner in the process.  Similarly, Internal Audit should update it’s own practices to adapt to the changing IT landscape (more frequent risk assessment updates, integrating audits into ongoing project activities, changes to the risk landscape).  If encourage you to read the full article on The Protiviti View if your organization is exploring a digital transformation initiative.  How was your organization’s approach to auditing these effort changed?