With just two weeks remaining before the auditors arrive, the entire staff is working feverishly, checklists in hand, to review tests of controls, past audit results, known issues and compliance guidelines. Even the janitorial staff is feeling the crunch from lugging trash bags full of pizza boxes and Chinese takeout cartons to the trash bin every night...
"With the significant increase in sensitive data breaches and identity theft, we have seen regulations such as DSS become much more granular, with very specific technical and auditing measures described for protection of data," Dave Shackleford, a director at Configuresoft, told the E-Commerce Times. "Additionally, many regulations are mandating the use of data encryption techniques, which is a change from several years ago. The reporting and auditing processes have become more stringent, too, with separation of duties and more detailed statements of controls needed to be compliant."