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Assuring E-commerce Practices The technology trust gap pricing accountant information
WebTrust programs might find a potential market for these services already exists within their client base.
SysTrust-licensed CPAs provide assurance services to businesses regarding the reliability and integrity of their information technology systems. In the WebTrust program, CPAs provide assurance services to e-commerce businesses regarding the reliability and integrity of their e-commerce practices in various areas, including transaction policies, privacy, and security.
The AICPA anticipates that numerous opportunities await CPAs that incorporate SysTrust or WebTrust services into their practices. Those that do will find technology assurance to be a dynamic and lucrative service area.
SysTrust and WebTrust are two assurance services that address the increasingly important areas of inforPF mation systems reliability and e-commerce integrity. Both services combine proven techniques for verifying the integrity of systems by employing a mix of current technology consulting skills and traditional auditing.
Systems Assurance: An Overview
Businesses of all sizes must consider two key factors:
Systems reliability. Companies depend on information technology for their daily functioning, maintaining their competitive position, and making key business decisions.
E-commerce security. Although e-commerce has become ubiquitous among both consumer retailers and business-to-business (B2B) merchants, customers' acceptance of it is based on trust in the transaction and business practices of the other party.
The AICPA developed SysTrust and WebTrust to enable CPAs to build new practice niches. SysTrust applies to a wide variety of systems, while WebTrust focuses entirely on the Internet. SysTrust examines the reliability of the systems themselves and WebTrust attests to controls over Internetbased transactions.
The "Trust Gap'
Dependence on information technology is a fact of life for today's businesses. Information systems are the engine behind key internal functions such as human resources, payroll, and accounting. To many outsiders whose only contact with a company may be electronic, the information systems may even be the company in the sense that the systems' quality and accuracy differentiate the company in the marketplace-and damage the company's reputation when they prove unreliable. Recognizing this fact, companies have invested in their information systems, making them into a key asset. Because systems assurance in the information technology marketplace will only expand in importance and size, systems assurance has the potential to develop as a...