The Relationship between Network Security Policies and Audit Evidence Documentation: The Accounting Information Security Culture as a Mediator

Mohammad Naser Musa Hamdan

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v12n12p168

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between network security policies (the department policy, system director policy, user policy, information security officer policy) on the one hand, and audit evidence documenting on the other hand. As the security, culture of accounting information has been introduced as a variable mediating that relationship. The researcher sent (450) questionnaires to all the companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange in Jordan equivalent to (228) company until 2015. The study found that there is a significant relationship between networks (the department policy, system director policy, user policy, information security officer policy) and documentation of the audit evidence. While the respondents said that, there is not a significant relationship between information security officer and policy and documentation of the audit evidence. Besides, the value of the correlation coefficient between network security policies and documentation of audit evidence had increased from (0.56) to (0.62), after entering the variable of security culture of accounting information systems to demonstrate its impact as a variable rate of the regression model and this result demonstrates the importance of awareness of security culture of the companies. These results will be very useful for those are interested, especially auditors to help them to appreciate the importance of documenting the audit evidence of network security and their implementation on the ground.

Highlights

The mass development of the information revolution on the one hand and the communications revolution on the other hand led to a significant progress in the electronic operation of accounting data with business organizations (Buccioli et al, 2015; Saleh, 2014)
We will present the results of the study, which aimed to identify the relationship between network security policies and documentation of audit evidence: the accounting information systems security culture, so by testing its hypotheses, as follows: 3.5 Results Related to Arithmetic and Standard Deviations Averages to the Field of Network Security Policy Dimensions
As maintaining the confidentiality and security of information is a top priority in companies as they constantly seek to take the appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality of information and prevent them from unauthorized access, since the protection of information systems in particular accounting information systems is the responsibility of every employee, and comes the role of the company policy in dissemination of the culture of security systems to observe the working together consciously by the staff

Summary

Introduction

The mass development of the information revolution on the one hand and the communications revolution on the other hand led to a significant progress in the electronic operation of accounting data with business organizations (Buccioli et al, 2015; Saleh, 2014). When determining the sufficiency and appropriateness of evidence of electronic proof that were collected in order to assist the auditor to express an audit opinion on the financial statements, the auditor must take into account the risks associated with the use of this type of evidence(Tan, 1995), where you cannot determine the extent of appropriate sufficiently through the examination of the electronic proof of evidence (Mousa & Al Qa'qa'a, 2016; Backof, 2015) as is in the case in the hard copy proof as printing the electronic information outputs or reading them on the screen is only one model and cannot give an indication of the origin of the information or its validity it cannot confirm the completeness or comprehensiveness of the information (Abdullah & Fares, 2016) and the auditor should ensure that the control and techniques systems relating to the establishment, processing , transmission and maintaining the electronic information sufficient systems so that it can ensure the credibility of the information (Arens et al, 2012) It may consequent in the electronic operating environment the appearance of several problems, including the problem of the disappearance of the set of books and documents where it became having a new model several stages were incorporated to be shown as one stage in the electronic operating the impact of data electronic operating extended to the place of operation The integrated information systems environment is deemed a paperless environment where information is exchanged without restrictions and obstructions of place, as they are submitted from one application to another and from one facility to another or from one country to another through electronic networks (Mousa et al, 2016) In this context, the auditor is obliged to the collect the electronic information as proof of evidence of auditing (Arens et al, 2012)

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion