FEMA Needs to Address Management Weaknesses to Improve Its Systems
Controls in emergency management GAO audited the agency of the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for federal efforts to mitigate, respond to, and recover from disasters. American auditors recommend that the agency fully define its investment board’s roles and responsibilities and procedures for selecting and overseeing investments, update its strategic plan and complete plans for IT modernization, and establish time frames for completing workforce planning efforts. The agency should also establish policies and guidance for implementing key IT management controls.
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Business Continuity Management
Business Continuity Management is a process whereby all necessary measures are taken to ensure that a company can accomplish its core tasks on time even in extraordinary situations. The Swiss Federal ... Audit Office (SFAO) previously carried out a cross-section audit in 2009 on the BCM measures at nine administrative units of the central Federal Administration. This year’s audit focused ... on the decentralised Federal Administration as well as the Swiss Federal Railways (rail transport and ticket sales) and Swiss Post (PostFinance, Swiss Post Solutions, PostBus). ... ... A cross-section audit on business continuity management (BCM) ... The audit points, among others, at a necessary but difficult process chain: Policy - Analysis - Strategy - Planning - Training.
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Improved Planning and Performance Measures Are Needed to Help Ensure Successful Technology Modernization
Massive modernization effort needs coordination Social security issues can touch lives of many. Information technology in this area are increasingly costly and difficult to maintain. GAO is recommending to develop comprehensive metrics to effectively gauge modernization progress; complete comprehensive strategic planning, including its enterprise architecture; and define the new roles and responsibilities to help ensure effective oversight.
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Coordinated Audit on Information Technology Governance
IT governance needs awareness and SAIs' support The OLACEFS auditors found that the greatest challenge for the SAIs is to raise the awareness of the audit institutions about the importance of IT governance and the benefits that could be obtained by improving its degree of maturity. The audit was conducted by 11 SAIs and coordinated by TCU of Brasil. They concluded: 'It is important, even urgent, to invest resources to implement or enhance: the IT committees; the IT planning process; strategic IT planning; monitoring the IT contracting process; the business continuity plan; the designation of a responsible person or unit to manage security information; a risk management process; an asset inventory process; an information security committee; and a policy for access control.'
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General and Creation Control of the Information Systems of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The objective of the audit was to assess general and creation control of the information systems of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since the beginning of 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ... achieved considerable progress in the management of the information systems. The auditors reviewed and assessed all key elements of the process. ... Overview of problems - area by area ... SAI Lithuania looked into all critical elements of a Ministry's information system, starting from IT architecture, through information security to automation of data processing.
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Management and protection of assets in the field of the information-communication technologies at the AO SR
The Supreme Audit office of the Slovak Republic (SAO SR) has executed the audit at the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (AO SR) for the audit period 2010 and 2011 to verify the operation ... and security of the information-communication technologies (ICT) and the information systems of the public administration (ISPA) as well as the state assets administration, the economy and disposal ... with the state assets, the compliance with the generally binding legal regulations and the general statues in the field of the ISPA. There were 24 irregularities found, mainly in the field of the protection ... ... ... Failure to comply with the law leads to unnecessary jeopardizing of data security ... The audit in the field of the information systems of the public administration (ISPA) executed by the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic at the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (AO ... SR) exposed several deficiencies related to the information systems and the data security as a consequence of a lawbreaking.
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