Change management auditing

Change management is an auditing procedure for mitigating risks associated with the changes made to an IT system. Limiting unauthorized changes and having proper segregation of duties controls in place is essential to reduce the risk of implementing IT changes into production environments which could contain untested errors, malicious code, segregation of duties violations, any of which could ultimately result in negatively impacting critical IT systems for a company. Change management is an essential component to a company's IT security.

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Change risks

Proper change control auditing can mitigate the following risks:

Control procedure

The following features are commonly part of a change management auditing procedure:

Change management procedures are formally documented and controlled.
Changes are requested in a formal process.
Requests are recorded and stored for reference.
The effect of the requested change is assessed.
Each change is assessed based on its projected effect to the computer system and business operations. The assessment is documented with the request.
Priority is based on urgency, potential benefits, and the ease with which changes can be corrected.
Controls are imposed on changes.
Changes are limited by automated or manual controls. In particular, unauthorized changes are periodically searched for.
An emergency change process is in place.
Policies clearly define emergency changes. Generally, these are errors that significantly impair system function and business operations, increase the system's vulnerability, or both. Emergency changes override some, but not all, controls. For instance, a proposed change might be documented, but not permitted without authorization.
Change documentation is periodically updated.
Maintenance tasks and changes are recorded.
Controls are applied to new software releases.
For security, new software releases often require controls such as back ups, version control, and a secure implementation.
Software distribution is assessed for compliance.
Software distribution is assessed for compliance with licence agreements. Noncompliance can have disastrous financial and legal results.
Changes are submitted for approval.
Proposed changes are submitted for approval after auditors have reviewed the required resources, other changes, the effect, urgency, and the system's stability.
Duties are separated
Responsibility for creation, approval, and application are assigned to different personnel to avoid undesired changes.
Changes are reviewed.
Changes are monitored to assess the efficacy of change management policies.

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