KING III INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE REQUIREMENTS – AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) has become essential due to its beneficial role in various aspects of business, including financial reporting. However, IT’s involvement in central components of business operations have caused increasing vulnerability to companies. Thus, the risks related to IT need to be governed. Several regulations have been developed internationally to regulate IT governance. As the King Code of Governance 2009 (King III) governs IT in South African companies, the study qualitatively evaluates King III against international IT governance regulations to ensure that South African companies’ IT governance compete on an international level. Findings indicate that King III leads internationally in terms of IT governance. The study contributes suggestions to further improve King III IT governance, relating to controls to prevent data tampering and data access, implementing IT risk assessment analysis processes, and policies to maintain IT security

Keywords

• Information technology, King III, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, International Organisation for Standardisation, International Standard on Auditing 315.