What is the Difference between general controls and application controls?

Answer 1

Auditing General ControlsA general controls review attempts to gain an overall impression of the controls that are present in the environment surrounding the information systems. These include the organizational and administrative structure of the IS function, the existence of policies and procedures for the day-to-day operations, availability of staff and their skills and the overall control environment. It is important for the IS auditor to obtain an understanding of these as they are the foundation on which other controls reside.

A general controls review would also include the infrastructure and environmental controls. A review of the data center or information processing facility should cover the adequacy of air conditioning (temperature, humidity), power supply (uninterruptible power supplies, generators) and smoke detectors/fire suppression systems, a conducive clean and dust free environment, protection from floods and water seepage as well as neat and identifiable electrical and network cabling.

Physical access control is another important area for review. Today in a highly networked world, logical access to computer systems is literally universal, yet there is a necessity to control physical access too. There are certain commands and settings that can be executed only from the console of the server and hence it is important to enclose all servers in a secure location protected by suitable mechanisms like locked doors, access swipe cards, biometric access devices or a combination of these. Further the IS auditors also should review the overall access control measures to the entire facility for controls like security guards at the entry gates, displaying of identification badges and logging visitor access