US CPA Exam Preparation: Information Systems and Controls (ISC)
Prepare for Information Systems and Controls, the US CPA discipline section for candidates heading towards IT audit, assurance and risk roles.
About this course
Prepare for Information Systems and Controls, the US CPA discipline section for candidates heading towards IT audit, assurance and risk roles. The course follows the published content areas: information systems and data management; security, confidentiality and privacy; and considerations for System and Organization Controls (SOC) engagements.
You will study IT infrastructure, data management and business resilience, then security frameworks, threats and controls, before planning, performing and reporting on SOC engagements. Timed practice with multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations runs throughout.
What you'll learn
- Explain IT infrastructure, business application systems and how data flows through them.
- Evaluate data management practices, including data integrity, storage and retention.
- Assess business resilience, backup and change management controls.
- Identify common security threats and the controls that prevent, detect and correct them.
- Apply confidentiality and privacy principles to the handling of business and personal data.
- Plan, perform and report on System and Organization Controls (SOC) engagements.
- Practise exam-style multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations under timed conditions.
Curriculum
- Choosing a discipline section
- Exam structure and question types
- Content areas and skill levels
- Building a personal study plan
- IT architecture and infrastructure
- Cloud and outsourced services
- Business application systems and processes
- Roles and segregation of duties in IT
- Data life cycle
- Data integrity and validation
- Databases and data structures
- Data retention and disposal
- Backup and recovery
- Business continuity and disaster recovery
- System development and change management
- Testing and implementing changes
- Security frameworks and standards
- Common threats and attack methods
- Risk assessment for information security
- Cyber security governance
- Preventive, detective and corrective controls
- Logical and physical access controls
- Network and endpoint security
- Incident detection and response
- Confidentiality of business information
- Privacy principles and personal data
- Data protection regulations
- Privacy controls and breaches
- Types of SOC reports
- SOC 1 and SOC 2 engagements
- Trust services criteria
- Planning procedures and materiality
- Testing controls in a SOC engagement
- Complementary user entity controls
- Subservice organisations
- Forming opinions and drafting reports
- Timed multiple-choice sets
- Task-based simulations
- Full mock exam
- Reviewing errors and weak areas
Who it's for
CPA candidates who have chosen ISC as their discipline section, typically those working in IT audit, assurance or risk.
Before you start
- A sound grounding in accounting and auditing concepts.
- Basic familiarity with business information systems is helpful.
Prepares for
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