Bank IT audit checklist
General IT Governance
- Identify existing governance frameworks.
- Evaluate policies for relevance and compliance.
- Ensure frameworks align with regulatory requirements.
- Review periodic updates and revisions.
- Engage stakeholders for feedback on policies.
- Analyze current IT strategy documents.
- Identify key business objectives and goals.
- Evaluate how IT initiatives support business priorities.
- Conduct interviews with business leaders.
- Document findings and recommend adjustments.
- Review committee meeting minutes and agendas.
- Assess attendance and participation levels.
- Analyze decision-making processes and outcomes.
- Gather feedback from committee members.
- Identify areas for improvement in governance.
- Collect existing job descriptions and role charters.
- Verify clarity and completeness of documentation.
- Ensure alignment with organizational structure.
- Cross-check with personnel to confirm understanding.
- Recommend updates as necessary for clarity.
Risk Management
- Conduct interviews with stakeholders.
- Utilize risk assessment tools.
- List potential IT risks and vulnerabilities.
- Evaluate impact and likelihood of each risk.
- Prioritize risks based on assessment results.
- Obtain current risk management documents.
- Ensure alignment with regulatory requirements.
- Check for regular updates and revisions.
- Assess the clarity and comprehensiveness of policies.
- Identify roles and responsibilities in risk management.
- Review the methodology used for assessment.
- Ensure consistency in risk evaluation processes.
- Examine the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
- Check for regular reviews of the process.
- Gather feedback from stakeholders on the process.
- Verify existence of comprehensive treatment plans.
- Ensure plans are updated and accessible.
- Check for defined timelines and responsibilities.
- Assess effectiveness of implemented treatment measures.
- Review documentation for compliance with policies.
Security Management
- Obtain the latest version of the policy.
- Verify compliance with regulatory standards.
- Ensure the policy covers all critical areas.
- Check for regular updates and revisions.
- Review approval signatures for accountability.
- Examine user access levels and permissions.
- Verify that access is based on least privilege.
- Check for regular access reviews and audits.
- Ensure proper documentation of access changes.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of authentication methods.
- Inspect the physical barriers and locks.
- Review surveillance systems and monitoring practices.
- Check access logs for unauthorized entries.
- Assess security personnel training and awareness.
- Ensure visitor access protocols are enforced.
- Verify the frequency of training sessions.
- Review training materials for relevance and updates.
- Check attendance records for employees.
- Assess the effectiveness of training through tests.
- Ensure training covers incident response procedures.
Data Management
- Identify categories of data: public, internal, confidential.
- Ensure procedures for handling each category are documented.
- Verify staff training on data handling practices.
- Check access controls based on data classification.
- Review backup frequency and methods used.
- Test recovery procedures for critical data.
- Ensure offsite backups are securely stored.
- Document the roles and responsibilities during recovery.
- Review retention schedules for different data types.
- Ensure policies comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
- Verify secure disposal methods for data no longer needed.
- Document exceptions and approval processes for retention.
- Identify applicable regulations based on data types.
- Review consent management processes for data collection.
- Check data subject rights and response procedures.
- Evaluate data breach notification protocols.
IT Infrastructure
- Examine network diagrams and documentation.
- Verify compliance with industry standards.
- Assess scalability and redundancy features.
- Identify potential single points of failure.
- Ensure alignment with business goals and requirements.
- Review firewall configurations and access controls.
- Evaluate intrusion detection and prevention systems.
- Check for secure VPN implementations.
- Assess network segmentation and isolation practices.
- Verify regular security audits and assessments.
- Review server inventory and asset management.
- Check for virtualization and cloud usage policies.
- Assess backup and recovery procedures.
- Evaluate hardware lifecycle management practices.
- Ensure compliance with performance monitoring standards.
- Review patch management policies and schedules.
- Verify documentation of applied patches and updates.
- Assess the effectiveness of maintenance routines.
- Check for automated monitoring and alerts.
- Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Application Management
- Examine phases: planning, design, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance.
- Ensure adherence to industry standards and regulations.
- Verify stakeholder involvement in each phase.
- Assess risk management strategies during development.
- Check for reviews and approvals at key stages.
- Evaluate security frameworks used (e.g., OWASP).
- Review vulnerability assessment and penetration testing results.
- Check for secure coding practices and training.
- Ensure regular security updates and patch management.
- Assess incident response plans related to security breaches.
- Assess approval workflows for application changes.
- Check for impact analysis procedures.
- Review documentation of change requests and implementations.
- Ensure rollback procedures are in place.
- Examine communication plans for stakeholders during changes.
- Verify existence of a comprehensive application inventory list.
- Ensure licensing agreements are up-to-date and compliant.
- Review asset management practices for software assets.
- Check for documentation of application usage and access controls.
- Assess processes for tracking software lifecycle and renewals.
Incident Management
- Ensure the plan is up-to-date with current regulations.
- Verify roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.
- Check for alignment with business continuity plans.
- Assess communication protocols during incidents.
- Identify key stakeholders involved in incident reporting.
- Evaluate the clarity of the escalation hierarchy.
- Ensure timely reporting mechanisms are in place.
- Review historical incident reports for trends.
- Examine tools used for tracking incidents.
- Assess the categorization of incidents by severity.
- Ensure resolutions are documented and accessible.
- Review the metrics used to evaluate incident handling.
- Verify scheduled testing of the plan occurs annually.
- Ensure lessons learned from incidents are incorporated.
- Review updates in response to regulatory changes.
- Assess involvement of stakeholders in the testing process.
Compliance and Audit
- Identify relevant regulations and standards.
- Cross-reference current policies and procedures.
- Conduct interviews with compliance officers.
- Review recent compliance reports.
- Document any gaps or non-compliance issues.
- Review audit plans and scopes.
- Evaluate auditor qualifications and independence.
- Analyze audit findings and recommendations.
- Check follow-up actions on past audits.
- Ensure timely communication of audit results.
- Review the log of audit findings.
- Assess timelines for resolution actions.
- Check for root cause analysis of issues.
- Verify that corrective actions are implemented.
- Document the status of unresolved findings.
- Ensure all audit reports are filed systematically.
- Review the completeness of documentation.
- Check accessibility of audit documentation.
- Look for records of audit follow-ups.
- Confirm retention policies for audit records.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
- Verify that the BCP and DRP are documented and accessible.
- Ensure the plans align with business operations and regulatory requirements.
- Check for clear roles and responsibilities outlined in the documents.
- Assess the comprehensiveness of the risk assessments included.
- Review the schedule for regular testing of BCP and DRP.
- Confirm that tests are documented and results analyzed.
- Check if updates are made after each test or incident.
- Evaluate the process for incorporating new threats and changes.
- Verify that RTO and RPO are defined for all critical systems.
- Assess whether the objectives meet business continuity needs.
- Check for documentation that supports the established RTO and RPO.
- Ensure regular reviews and adjustments based on business changes.
- Confirm that training sessions are conducted regularly.
- Ensure all staff are aware of their roles in BCP and DRP.
- Review training materials for relevance and clarity.
- Assess participation rates and feedback from training sessions.
Use in Manifestly