Organization-Guide/Processes/COSO/ITGC.md

IT General Controls (ITGC)

Abbreviations

• No.: Number
• A: Application
• OS: Operating System
• DB: DBMS
• N: Network
• O: Others

General

No.	Component	Control Area	Question	Answer	Evidence
	IT	IT Strategy	Do you have a IT investment strategy or plan?	Yes, investments are evaluated at least annually during the budget process. Additionally, resources are also checked regularly (e.g. executive committee meeting).	Budget Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
	IT	IT Strategy	Are the IT investment strategies or plans reviewed and approved by the management?	Yes, during the budget process and if outside the budget in the executive committee meeting.	Budget Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

System Development and Maintenance

Points to consider

Overview	Component	Situation	Evidence
Frequency of changes	A	Often changes are required for various reasons (e.g. functionality enhancement changes in business processes, etc.)	CHANGELOG Software validation
Frequency of changes	OS, DB	Changes are made for each release of security patches/upgrades	Software validation
Frequency of changes	N, O	Changes are made for each release of patches/upgrades	Software validation

Assessment of Design Effectiveness

No.	Question	Component	Situation	Evidence
1	Policies and procedures for development and maintenance are described in a formal way	A, OS, DB, N, O	Documentations are prepared by the IT team and authorized by the head of IT	Process: Development Process: Support & Service Policies: IT
2	Roles and responsibilities concerning development and maintenance are clearly defined	A, OS, DB, N, O	IT personnel incl. service vendors perform changes	Process: Development Process: Support & Service Organigram
3	Changes are tested and their results are approved	A, OS, DB, N, O	Before updates for third party software are performed on the servers they are tested in a testing environment. Self-developed software changes are tested according the development process.	Third party: Software validation Process: Development Internal: Test protocols
4	Changes are approved for their migration to the production environment	A, OS, DB, N, O	The change in the production environment is approved by the head of IT for third party software and for self-developed changes according the development process.	Third party: Software validation Process: Development Internal: Merge protocol
5	Procedures are in place for preventing/detecting unauthorized changes to the production environment	A, OS, DB, N, O	Only the head of IT can install updates on the servers. Only the head of IT has the necessary IT authentication and IT permission. For self-developed changes all changes, merges can only be performed from authorized personnel and all merges are logged in merging protocols.	Permission List

System Security (Access Control)

Points to consider

Question	Component	Situation	Evidence
Number of users	A	Large number of users in large number of user locations/departments	Organigram Permission List
Number of users	OS, DB, N, O	Number of users and user locations/departments is limited	Organigram Permission List
Frequency of "direct data change" ("direct data change" means to change data with the utilities such as SQL software)	N	No direct change to data has been required since its implementation, as the system has been in stable operation

Assessment of Design Effectiveness

No.	Question	Component	Situation	Evidence
1	User authentication is required	A, OS, DB, N, O	User-ID and password are assigned on an individual basis	Application login screen OS login screen DB login screen Server login screen
2	User and access rights granted to each user are documented	A	A list of users is prepared with the rights granted to each user. This list is generated from the system	Application permission List
2	User and access rights granted to each user are documented	OS, DB, N, O	A list of users is prepared with the rights granted to each user	Permission List
3	Policies and procedures for user-ID administration (add, change, remove, and periodic user validation) are described in an authorized documentation	A, OS, DB, N, O	The documentation is prepared and authorized by the head of IT
4	Periodic user validation is performed, this means each user's access rights are reviewed on a periodic basis	A, OS, DB, N, O	Performed both in terms of existence of user and the detailed access rights granted to each user-ID on an annual basis by the head of IT
5	User-ID administration requests are approved by managers in user dpt. and/or IT dpt, as appropriate	A, OS, DB, N, O	Records are maintained in the change management
6	Access to privileged IT functions is restricted to appropriate personnel	A, OS, DB, N, O	These functions are restricted to IT personnel. Logs of the use of such privileged user-IDs are reviewed annually
7	The level of complexity in password settings are appropriate	A, OS, DB, N, O	Password complexity is configured based on a minimum length of 8, at least one upper case letter, at least one lower case letter, at least one special character and at least one numeric value. Password changes must happen every 3 months
8	Policies and procedures for direct change to data are descripted in a documentation	DB	Only the head of IT may perform and authorize direct changes to the data
9	Direct change to data are authorized	DB	No direct changes to data where made
10	Direct change to data are tested	DB	No direct changes to data where made
11	Access to DB and/or utilities for direct change to data is restricted to appropriate personnel	DB	Only the head of IT has write/change permissions to the DB
12	Physical access to computer hardware is restricted to appropriate personnel	A, OS	Data and programs are in a stand-alone PC in control of the user. User permissions for Applications and OS are restricted appropriately
12	Physical access to computer hardware is restricted to appropriate personnel	DB	Server(s) are located in a machine room with appropriate physical access control

System Operation and Administration

Points to consider

Question	Situation	Evidence
Frequency of problems/incidents	Material failure such as miscalculation or malfunction of the system has not occurred.
Frequency of changes to job schedules	Changes to job schedules occur frequently but most of them are those in execution date
Frequency of Non/Scheduled job	Non/Scheduled job is required in some cases but its frequency is low

Assessment of Design Effectiveness

No.	Question	Situation	Evidence
1	Policies and procedures for backups	Exists
2	Completion of backup is ensured	All backup job records are reviewed by monitoring personnel
3	Backup and recovery are periodically tested	Every backup is automatically tested
4	Policies and procedures for job operation are described in a documentation
5	Job schedule changes are approved
6	Procedures are in place for preventing/detecting unauthorized changes to job schedules
7	Completion of job execution is ensured
8	Requests for non-scheduled job execution are authorized
9	Policies and procedures for identifying, resolving, reviewing, and analyzing IT operations problems or incidents are described in a documentation
10	IT operations problems or incidents are identified, resolved, reviewed, analyzed, and follow-ups are evidenced in a timely manner

Outsourcing Contract Management

Points to consider

Question	Situation	Evidence
What services are outsourced	Some of the services are outsourced concerning development/maintenance related to ITGCs	Software vendor contracts

Assessment of Design Effectiveness

No.	Question	Situation	Evidence
1	Outsourced service are clearly defined and agreed with the service vendor in writing e.g. in contract and/or SLA
2	Service vendor's compliance to the service level is periodically reviewed
3	Regular review of service vendors is conducted in terms of appropriateness of the services defined, service vendor's ability to render the required service level, etc.

2022-01-01 - Version 1.0