Machine-independent audit trail analysis - a tool for continuous audit assurance
Article
Article Title | Machine-independent audit trail analysis - a tool for continuous audit assurance |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 32090 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | |
Author | Best, Peter J. |
Journal Title | Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management |
Journal Citation | 12 (2), pp. 85-102 |
Number of Pages | 18 |
Year | 2004 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1055-615X |
1099-1174 | |
1550-1949 | |
2160-0074 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.243 |
Abstract | [Summary]: This paper reports the results of a research project which examines the feasibility of developing a machine-independent audit trail analyser (MIATA). MIATA is a knowledge based system which performs intelligent analysis of operating system audit trails. Such a system is proposed as a decision support tool for auditors when assessing the risk of unauthorised user activity in multi-usercomputer systems. It is also relevant to the provision of a continuous assurance service to clients by internal and external auditors. Monitoring user activity in system audit trails manually is impractical because of the vast quantity of events recorded in those audit trails. However, if done manually, an expert security auditor would be needed to look for 2 main types of events - user activity rejected by the system's security settings (failed actions) and user's behaving abnormally (e.g. unexpected changes in activity such as the purchasing clerk attempting to modify payroll data). A knowledge based system is suited to applications that require expertise to perform well-defined, yet complex, monitoring activities (e.g. controlling nuclear reactors and detecting intrusions in computer systems). To permit machine-independent intelligent audit trail analysis, an anomaly-detection approach is adopted. Time series forecasting methods are used to develop and maintain the user profile database (knowledge base) that allows identification of users with rejected behaviour as well as |
Keywords | audit trails, intrusion detection, continuous assurance |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 350102. Auditing and accountability |
460908. Information systems organisation and management | |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Byline Affiliations | Queensland University of Technology |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/9z443/machine-independent-audit-trail-analysis-a-tool-for-continuous-audit-assurance
Download files
1845
total views234
total downloads2
views this month2
downloads this month