Creating the Next Generation Cybersecurity Auditor: Examining the Relationship between It Auditors’ Competency, Audit Quality, & Data Breaches

Abstract

This study addressed a significant gap in the literature by addressing the primary research question: To what extent do IT auditors' task performance and knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) influence audit quality (evidence interpretation) and data breaches? This study collected data from IT auditors that worked in first and second-tier audit firms like Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, RSM Tenon, and BDO. This study discovered that IT auditors' lack of hands-on skills implementing technologies significantly influenced their ability to interpret technical evidence and reduce data breach likelihood. The research results also provided additional support to debunk the years of experience fallacy and the 10,000-hour rule. Evidence interpretation and audit techniques have been an ongoing concern from the adoption of electronic data processing in the early 1950s. In preparation for Industry 4.0, the profession must consider the expertise required to interpret technical evidence. Although the audit discipline has made significant progress over the past 50 years, the IT and audit professions have struggled to keep up with technology and have typically adopted an Implement First, Think Later philosophy.