ISACA Muscat Chapter and ACCA, Oman held their first joint educational seminar on 17 February 2007 at the College of Banking & Financial Studies, Bausher.

Dr. Albert J. Marcella, Professor of Management, at the School of Business and Technology, Webster University delivered a presentation on “Audit & Control Considerations in Electronic Commerce”.

The presentation highlighted the changing roles of technology in an e-business environment and how it can jeopardize the reliability of information both from a management and an audit point-of-view. It is important to communicate to management that an e-business organization faces new threats to safeguarding its assets. Access to those assets is often managed via IT-systems. Manipulation of those systems could lead to unauthorized use of assets, which may compromise financial reporting.
Organizations need to conduct risk assessment and assess controls on E-commerce said Dr Alfred. Access controls, log files and segregation of duties are key controls in maintaining overall security in emerging virtual markets governed by Ecommerce. Dr Alfred also spoke on how to identify steps necessary in performing an audit of organization's E- commerce environment.

The presentation was prefaced by a brief introduction by Mr A. Subramaniam, President of ISACA Muscat Chapter and Mr. Nasser Al Mughairy, FCCA, Member – ACCA Council on these professional bodies and their activities in Oman.