IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton

Chapter 3:
Data Management Systems
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DATA-FLAT FILES
e.g., Figure 3.1 [p.94]
Disadvantages
Data storage
Data updating
Currency of information
Task-data dependency (limited access)
Data integration (limited inclusion)
Do not use accounting data to support
decisions
Manipulate existing data to suit unique needs
Obtain additional private sets of data,
incurring costs and operational problems
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DATA-DATABASE
e.g., Figure 3.2 [p.96]
How database approach eliminates
the five disadvantages of flat files
Data storage
Data updates
Currency of information
Task-data dependency (limited
access)
Data integration (limited inclusion)
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
CENTRALIZED DATABASE
SYSTEM
Figure 3.3 [p.98]
Database Environment
DBMS
Users
Database administrator
Physical database
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DBMS
Typical features

Program development
Backup and recovery
Database usage reporting
Database access
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DBMS
Data definition language (DDL)
Views
Figure 3.4 [p.99]

Internal / physical view
Conceptual / logical view
External / user view
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
USERS
Formal access: application interfaces
Data manipulation language (DML)
DBMS operations: 7 steps [Figure 3.4]
Informal access: query
Define query

SQL
is industry de facto standard query language
Select, from, where commands
Review Figure 3.5 [p.101] SQL process

QBE
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DBA
DBA
Manages the database resources
Table 3.1 [p.102]

Database planning
Database design
Database implementation
Database operations & maintenance
Change & growth
Data dictionary
Interactions [Figure 3-6, p.103]
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
PHYSICAL DATABASE
Data structures
Data organization
Sequential
Random
Data access methods
Data hierarchy
Attribute/field
Record
Associations
File
Database
Enterprise database
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DATABASE MODELS
Hierarchical

Network

Relational
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RELATIONAL MODEL:
2-dimensional
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RELATIONAL MODEL -
TERMS
TABLE = file
COLUMN = field
ROW = record

IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RULE #1
Entries in the table cells MUST be
single-valued
Cannot be null
Cannot be multi-values
Example
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RULE #2

Consistency applies to columnar
values same class
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RULE #3
Column names are distinct

Example cost for sales price and
unit cost columns
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
RULE #4
Each row contains distinctively
different data from all other rows

Requires use of key field(s)
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton

Figure 3-13, p. 112
RELATIONAL MODEL
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DATABASE IN DDP
Data concurrency problem
Deadlock (illustrated in Figure 3-17, p. 118)
Time 1: User 1 loads File A, User 2 loads File C User 3 loads File E

Time 2: User 1 locks File A, User 2 locks File C, User 3 locks File E

Time 3: User 1 tries to load File C wait
User 2 tries to load File E wait
Use 3 tries to load File A wait

DEADLOCK!!
Deadlock Resolution
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
DATABASE IN DDP
Distributed database
Partitioned
Replicated

Concurrency control
Classified
Time-stamps
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
CONTROLLING & AUDITING
DBMS
Access controls
User views / subschema [see Figure 3-20,
p.121]
Database authorization table [Table 3-3,
p.122]
User-defined procedures
Mothers maiden name
Data encryption
Biometric devices
Inference controls (query)
example (p. 123)
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
CONTROLLING & AUDITING DBMS:
Audit Procedures
Tables and subschemas
Review policy and job descriptions
Examine programmer authority tables for access to
DDL
Interview programmers and DBA
Appropriate access authority
Biometric controls
Inference controls
Encryption controls
OBJECTIVE: Verify that database access
authority and privileges are granted to users
in accordance with legitimate needs.
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
CONTROLLING & AUDITING DBMS:
Audit Procedures
Backups
Logs
Checkpoint
Recovery module

OBJECTIVE: Verify that backup controls in
place are effective in protecting data files
from physical damage, loss, accidental
erasure, and data corruption through system
failures and program errors.
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton
CONTROLLING & AUDITING DBMS:
Audit Procedures
OBJECTIVE: Verify that controls over the
data resource are sufficient to preserve the
integrity and physical security of the
database.
IT Auditing & Assurance, 2e, Hall & Singleton

Chapter 3:
Data Management Systems