remote access audit checklist

1. Planning From the beginning we will work together to get the right audit approach for you. ...
2. Conducting the remote audit A successful remote audit relies on adequate connectivity (i.e. voice and video) to ensure the communication between you and the auditor is stable. ...
3. Audit reporting

Full Answer

How to audit remote access to third parties on your network?

By properly auditing remote access to the third parties on your network. The best way to do this is to enlist the help of a vendor management solution that can automatically track each vendor user’s activity with videos and logs of files transferred, commands entered, and services accessed. There is an old saying: “Trust, but verify.”

What is this guidance for remote auditors?

This guidance is non-normative and can be used as a checklist or reference for initiatives as they think about all the things that need to be in place to ensure the quality, integrity and efficiency of remote auditing practices.

How should firms prepare for remote auditing?

All firms should conduct an initial risk assessment and document the outcomes achieved through remote auditing, including plans that will go into effect when current restrictions are lifted to ensure on-site audits can resume in a timely manner.

Why audit remote vendor access?

Proper auditing of remote vendor access achieves three vital goals: 1 An ongoing audit ensures accountability and compliance. 2 An audit trail and access notifications can set off alarms when unusual activity occurs. 3 Granular audit records provide forensic details in the event of a breach or mistake to help track down the root cause... More ...

What is network security audit checklist?

A typical network security audit includes: An in-depth analysis of security measures. Risk assessment (processes, applications, and functions). A review of all policies and procedures. Examination of controls and technologies protecting assets.

What is a remote access audit?

Remote Desktop Audit is designed for monitoring the activity of users who access your servers via remote desktop. All information about remote desktop sessions across your servers will be collected in one place, thereby allowing for in-depth data analysis and providing valuable new insights.

What should be included in an audit checklist?

Internal Audit Planning ChecklistInitial Audit Planning.Risk and Process Subject Matter Expertise.Initial Document Request List.Preparing for a Planning Meeting with Business Stakeholders.Preparing the Audit Program.Audit Program and Planning Review.

What is a best practice for compliance in the remote access domain?

Setting up a VPN and requiring all remote connections to pass through it is a basic best practice for keeping resources secure when employees work remotely.

How do you perform a remote audit?

How to Prepare for a Remote AuditIdentify the Key Personnel in the Company. ... Identify the Needs with the Audit Team. ... Digitize Your Documents. ... Gather Documentation From Auditors. ... Check the Internet Connection.

How do I monitor remote access?

To monitor remote client activity and statusIn Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Remote Access Management.Click REPORTING to navigate to Remote Access Reporting in the Remote Access Management Console.More items...•

What is ISO checklist?

We define an ISO audit checklist as an elemental internal audit checklist that comprises a tabulated list of ISO 9001 requirements that is used monitor the compliance status of each clause against an organization's processes when implementing and assessing a new quality management practices.

How do I create an audit checklist in Excel?

Add the checkboxes and advanced formatting.Enable the Developer Tab. To create a checklist, you must enable the Developer tab on the ribbon. ... Enter the Checklist Items Into Your Spreadsheet. Enter your to-do list, one item per cell. ... Add the Checkboxes. Click in the cell into which you want to insert the checkbox.

What are the 4 phases of an audit process?

Although every audit process is unique, the audit process is similar for most engagements and normally consists of four stages: Planning (sometimes called Survey or Preliminary Review), Fieldwork, Audit Report and Follow-up Review.

What should be included in a remote access policy?

What Should You Address in a Remote Access Policy?Standardized hardware and software, including firewalls and antivirus/antimalware programs.Data and network encryption standards.Information security and confidentiality.Email usage.Physical and virtual device security.Network connectivity, e.g., VPN access.More items...•

What are the security requirements for remote access?

7 Best Practices For Securing Remote Access for EmployeesDevelop a Cybersecurity Policy For Remote Workers. ... Choose a Remote Access Software. ... Use Encryption. ... Implement a Password Management Software. ... Apply Two-factor Authentication. ... Employ the Principle of Least Privilege. ... Create Employee Cybersecurity Training.

What is a preferred security measure for remote access?

Virtual Private Networking (VPN) is often considered the best approach in securing trans-network communication.

What is remote access control?

Remote access control refers to the ability to monitor and control access to a computer or network (such as a home computer or office network computer) anywhere and anytime. Employees can leverage this ability to work remotely away from the office while retaining access to a distant computer or network.

What security best practices are for connecting to remote systems?

7 Best Practices For Securing Remote Access for EmployeesDevelop a Cybersecurity Policy For Remote Workers. ... Choose a Remote Access Software. ... Use Encryption. ... Implement a Password Management Software. ... Apply Two-factor Authentication. ... Employ the Principle of Least Privilege. ... Create Employee Cybersecurity Training.

What should stakeholders know about remote auditing?

As part of the initial plan, stakeholders should identify the limits of remote auditing and acknowledge that future on-site work may be required based on the remote audit findings or, in the case of a pandemic, once travel bans are lifted.

How long should a remote closing meeting be?

A remote closing meeting shouldn’t be substantively different from that of an in- person audit. These should typically be scheduled a day or two following interviews—a timeframe that enables auditors to review their findings and meet as a team to gather preliminary audit results.

How long is a remote interview?

Barring technical difficulties, interview times should largely match those of a traditional audit: 30 to 90 minutes with program owners, 15 to 30 minutes with implementation personnel, and short er interviews with more general responsibilities.

How long should an audit be completed?

If an audit is typically completed in two days, for example, an additional half day may be needed to conduct the same activities remotely.

What is a legal document that prohibits recording?

Legal agreements barring electronic recordings: A legal document should be produced and signed by both parties to prohibit any recording of screen-shares, livestreams, or other media transmitted remotely. The risks of recording in a remote project will likely not be mitigated by existing contractual clauses.

Why are facilities organized?

Most facilities are organized to make documents easy to find and reference on site. It may take more time to prepare and upload documents to a platform suitable for sharing materials with an auditor versus paper record storage organizers or digital database storage.

Can remote audits take more time?

While conducting a remote review shouldn’t take more time than a traditional audit (again, barring any technical difficulties), auditors will likely need more time to prepare. An effective auditor will “arrive” to a virtual interview with a list of questions and discussion points to obtain additional information.

Quick Checklist

This checklist will help make the most of your time with Percona by ensuring that our access to your servers is correctly set up before we begin working with you.

Public SSH Keys

Our public SSH keys are available from the percona.com domain and can be easily downloaded.

MySQL

In order to provide us full access to your environment, Percona asks that you create a fully privileged user in the database, and configure the MySQL client for easy access by setting parameters in /home/percona/.my.cnf or in the newly created user's home directory.

MongoDB

Create a MongoDB user named percona, grant the following privileges and give us the password (or leave it in a file in Percona’s engineer home directory).

Postgres

Unrestricted access as the superuser to the database is required in order to execute the read-only audit scripts. If this is a dedicated host then ssh login privileges to the UNIX/Linux Postgres user account is normally sufficient, since it grants such privileges.

Monitoring Tools

Please provide access to any monitoring tools you are using. For example, Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) access enables the engineer to clearly see trending information for all the important metrics.

Other Types of Access

We can work with nearly any type of access. Direct SSH access to the server is most efficient, however, any more elaborate types of access (such as proprietary VPN programs, platform-dependent technologies such as GoToMyPC, etc.,) can be less efficient – sometimes significantly less efficient.

Provide secure, uninterrupted access to your networks

Take your infrastructure, for example.

Virtualized offices bring new cybersecurity risks

You’ll also want to review your company’s cybersecurity efforts.

Stay productive and collaborative, no matter where your team is located

It’s critical to ensure productivity and support remain high in virtualized offices.

Checklist 1: Making your remote setup as secure as possible

No matter how far along you are in setting up your infrastructure to support remote office work, here are some valuable tips for making it as secure as it can be:

Checklist 2: Mitigating the risk of your widened attack surface

Taking the steps in the previous checklist will help make your environment more secure, but your attack surface is still larger than ever. Implement these best practices to further improve risk management:

What should sustainability systems examine?

Sustainability systems should examine their fee structure and rationale, taking into consideration how fees are impacted by the absence of travel costs and travel time, and by increased audit planning and preparation time.

What is considered high risk in sustainability?

Sustainability systems should consider the conditions under which they will allow for remote initial audits of new clients, if at all. Where remote initial audits are allowed, these should be classified as high risk, with consideration of any restrictions on the nature of the assessment (e.g. partial assessment) and of the assurance status of the client (e.g. conditional certification).

Why should sustainability systems have procedures in place?

Sustainability systems should have procedures in place for how to gather information from remote locations where internet or cellular access may be limited. They should also consider whether any new system requirements limit accessibility to their programme, particularly from disadvantaged groups and indigenous peoples.

How does sustainability comply with GDPR?

Sustainability systems should comply with the EU GDPR by minimizing the collection and use of personal data (often referred to as data that could identify an individual or natural person), and should seek consent from individuals for the specific uses of information they are collecting from those individuals.

What is a good practice guide?

This Good Practice Guide applies primarily to sustainability systems that are implementing or requiring remote auditing approaches within their assurance or verification programmes. Since some systems defer management of their assurance processes to assurance providers like certification bodies, the guidance is also applicable to these assurance providers.

Why is remote auditing important?

However, it can be useful to approach remote auditing proactively as an opportunity to improve data gathering, management and analysis, and to strengthen the quality and integrity of the audit process as a result. This section focuses on considerations for how to integrate data and technology effectively into the remote audit process. Further reading on this topic can be found in this

When sustainability systems require use of a risk assessment to determine whether an enterprise qualifies for one or more types of

Where sustainability systems require use of a risk assessment to determine whether an enterprise qualifies for one or more types of remote audit, they should define the risk assessment process, including classification of risk levels and implications of each risk level for the assessment process.

What is network security audit?

A Network Security Audit is an audit of all your network systems to make sure that potential security risks are eliminated or minimized. Servers, routers, workstations, gateways, must all be checked to make sure they are secure and safe and aren’t sharing any sensitive information. Also, because users are connected to the network, ...

Why do we lose millions of dollars in a year?

Millions of dollars are lost every year because of security threats, both in down networks and computers as well as stolen data. Making sure your network and data are secure should be one of your top priorities. Having a Network Security Audit Checklist is just one of the ways that help you do that.

What is BYOD policy?

An IT security policy or BYOD policy (Bring Your Own Device ) needs to be in place for mobile devices that are used on the network. Use a firewall and make sure that all public-facing services are on a separate network segment or DMZ (email, FTP, web, for example) for intrusion prevention.

Why is it important to have an extra set of hands and eyes looking at the network?

An extra set of hands and eyes looking at the network will ensure that your network is secure and safe. Often external auditors will be more thorough and objective, whereas an internal auditor is so familiar with the network, they may forget a step or assume that some steps aren’t needed.

Can you use a checklist to cover all network devices?

Most checklists are thorough but accommodating every piece of network device and software in the world is a challenge. One checklist may not be enough to cover all the network software and devices in your company.

Do vendors need to sign a security agreement?

All outside vendors and contractors need to sign a security agreement while they are working in your environment. Make sure users have been trained regarding the sharing of information by email and the Internet. Have contingency plans in place for if and when there is a data breach or security breach.

Description

Workbook provides audit procedures for an audit of remote access. Includes columns for entity risk and control objectives.

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