Introduction:

The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) qualification is the globally recognized certification for IS audit control, assurance and security professionals. Being CISA-certified showcases your audit experience, skills and knowledge, and demonstrates you are capable to assess vulnerabilities, report on compliance and implement controls within the enterprise. This course provides a comprehensive revision for the key job practice knowledge domains as well as exam preparation exercises that help delegates pass the exam at the first attempt. The course has been designed to maximize time effectiveness and reduce any unnecessary time away from the office. It has also been shown to be more considerably more effective than self-study preparation, which requires more time and commitment. This course is intended as a hard core preparation for ISACA's professional certification exam for the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). Each of the five domains of the CISA exam will be covered and the content is focused on concise exam preparation to give you all what you need for the exam and none of what you don't need. This main features of this certification:

• Confirms your knowledge and experience
• Quantifies and markets your expertise
• Demonstrates that you have gained and maintained the level of knowledge required to meet the dynamic challenges of a modern enterprise
• Is globally recognized as the mark of excellence for the IS audit professional
• Combines the achievement of passing a comprehensive exam with recognition of work and educational experience, providing you with credibility in the marketplace
• Increases your value to your organization
• Gives you a competitive advantage over peers when seeking job growth
• Helps you achieve a high professional standard through ISACA’s requirements for continuing education and ethical conduct

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Be prepared for the CISA examination by enabling them to supplement their existing knowledge and understanding so as to be better prepared to pass the exam, as defined by ISACA
• You'll increase your expertise in information systems audit, control and security, as defined by leading CISA certification  
• Be confident that the necessary leadership, organizational structures and processes are in place to achieve objectives and to support your business strategy
• Be able to deliver audit activities that align to recognized IT standards, assisting your organization with protecting and controlling its information systems
• Be familiar with industry accepted terminology and practices used by information security professionals

Who Should Attend?

IT Engineers, IT Professionals, IT Directors, Engineers, IT Project Managers, IT Auditors, IT Compliance Managers, IT Coordinators, IT Support Managers, IT Officers, IT Support Specialists, IT System Administration, Technical Support Professionals, Chief Information Officers, Chief Risk Officers, Information Assurance Officers, Program Managers, Network Systems Analysts, Government Program Managers, R&D Project Managers, Software and System Developers, Chief Security Officers, Security Specialists, Chief Information Security Officers, Directors of Security, Security Architects, Security Operation Center Managers, Security Consultants, Security Managers, Security Auditors, Security Directors, Systems Administrators, Incident Response Analysts, Business Owners, Security Analysts, Security Systems Engineer, Network Architect, Operations Managers, Risk Management Professionals, Network Administration Professionals, Application Developers, Application Support Analysts, Application Engineers, Associate Developers, Technology Officers, Information Officers, Help Desk Specialist, Help Desk Technician, Database Administrators, Network Architects, Network Engineers, Network System Administrators, System Analysts, System Architects, System Designers, Finance/CPA Professionals, I.T. Professionals, Internal & External Auditors, Internal and External Auditors (both IT and Financial), Compliance Officers, Finance/CPA Professionals, Information Security Professionals, Risk Management Professionals, IT Professionals & Management

Course Outline:

The Process of Auditing Information Systems

• Providing audit services in accordance with IT audit standards to assist the organization in protecting and controlling information systems
• Developing and implement a risk-based IT audit strategy in compliance with IT audit standards to ensure that key areas are included
• Planning specific audits to determine whether information systems are protected, controlled and provide value to the organization
• Conducting audits in accordance with IT audit standards to achieve planned audit objectives
• Reporting audit findings and make recommendations to key stakeholders to communicate results and effect change when necessary
• Conducting follow-ups or prepare status reports to ensure appropriate actions have been taken by management in a timely manner

Governance and Management of IT

• Providing assurance that the necessary leadership and organization structure and processes are in place to achieve objectives and to support the organization's strategy
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the IT governance structure to determine whether IT decisions, directions and performance support the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating IT organizational structure and human resources (personnel) management to determine whether they support the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating the IT strategy, including the IT direction, and the processes for the strategy's development, approval, implementation and maintenance for alignment with the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating the organization's IT policies, standards, and procedures, and the processes for their development, approval, implementation, maintenance, and monitoring, to determine whether they support the IT strategy and comply with regulatory and legal requirements
• Evaluating the adequacy of the quality management system to determine whether it supports the organization's strategies and objectives in a cost-effective manner
• Evaluating IT management and monitoring of controls (e.g., continuous monitoring, QA) for compliance with the organization's policies, standards and procedures
• Evaluating IT resource investment, use and allocation practices, including prioritization criteria, for alignment with the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating IT contracting strategies and policies, and contract management practices to determine whether they support the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating risk management practices to determine whether the organization's IT-related risks are properly managed
• Evaluating monitoring and assurance practices to determine whether the board and executive management receive sufficient and timely information about IT performance
• Evaluating the organization's business continuity plan to determine the organization's ability to continue essential business operations during the period of an IT disruption

Information Systems Acquisition, Development, and Implementation

• Providing assurance that the practices for the acquisition, development, testing, and implementation of information systems meet the organization's strategies and objectives
• Evaluating the business case for the proposed investments in information systems acquisition, development, maintenance and subsequent retirement to determine whether it meets business objectives
• Evaluating the project management practices and controls to determine whether business requirements are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risks to the organization
• Conducting reviews to determine whether a project is progressing in accordance with project plans, is adequately supported by documentation and status reporting is accurate
• Evaluating controls for information systems during the requirements, acquisition, development and testing phases for compliance with the organization's policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements
• Evaluating the readiness of information systems for implementation and migration into production to determine whether project deliverables, controls and organization's requirements are met
• Conducting post-implementation reviews of systems to determine whether project deliverables, controls and organization's requirements are met

Information Systems Operations, Maintenance and Support

• Providing assurance that the processes for information systems operations, maintenance and support meet the organization's strategies and objectives
• Conducting periodic reviews of information systems to determine whether they continue to meet the organization's objectives
• Evaluating service level management practices to determine whether the level of service from internal and external service providers is defined and managed
• Evaluating third party management practices to determine whether the levels of controls expected by the organization are being adhered to by the provider
• Evaluating operations and end-user procedures to determine whether scheduled and non-scheduled processes are managed to completion
• Evaluating the process of information systems maintenance to determine whether they are controlled effectively and continue to support the organization's objectives
• Evaluating data administration practices to determine the integrity and optimization of databases
• Evaluating the use of capacity and performance monitoring tools and techniques to determine whether IT services meet the organization's objectives
• Evaluating problem and incident management practices to determine whether incidents, problems or errors are recorded, analyzed and resolved in a timely manner
• Evaluating change, configuration and release management practices to determine whether scheduled and non-scheduled changes made to the organization's production environment are adequately controlled and documented
• Evaluating the adequacy of backup and restore provisions to determine the availability of information required to resume processing
• Evaluating the organization's disaster recovery plan to determine whether it enables the recovery of IT processing capabilities in the event of a disaster

Protection of Information Assets

• Providing assurance that the organization's security policies, standards, procedures and controls ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets
• Evaluating the information security policies, standards and procedures for completeness and alignment with generally accepted practices
• Evaluating the design, implementation and monitoring of system and logical security controls to verify the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information
• Evaluating the design, implementation, and monitoring of the data classification processes and procedures for alignment with the organization's policies, standards, procedures, and applicable external requirements
• Evaluating the design, implementation and monitoring of physical access and environmental controls to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded
• Evaluating the processes and procedures used to store, retrieve, transport and dispose of information assets (e.g., backup media, offsite storage, hard copy/print data, and softcopy media) to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded

COURSE LOCATIONS