What are the personality traits and abilities of good IT auditors?
Good IT auditors are like other good auditors, only better. Here are some of their characteristics: Inquisitiveness – more than just idle curiosity, this describes the urge to find out how things (computer systems and subsystems, work processes, organizational units, people) work and why they don’t work better. Asking questions, both literally and figuratively, is what fieldwork or audit testing is all about. Independence of thought – formal independence of the audit function from line/executive management is only part of this aspect. Auditors need to ‘think outside the box’ more than most. It’s all too easy to get drawn into the “that’s how we’ve always done it” thought patterns constraining most auditees. Trustworthy computer hackers (if that’s not an oxymoron) would probably make good IT auditors. Auditors might be called professional cynics, trained and encouraged to challenge the status quo (and other aging rock groups). Assertiveness – assertiveness (neither aggression nor arroga
