Introduction to COBIT
COBIT is the IT Governance Institute’s IT audit framework used to help achieve SOX compliance and ensure security and availability of IT assets. COBIT supports IT governance by providing a framework to ensure that:
- IT is aligned with the business
- IT enables the business and maximizes benefits
- IT resources are used responsibly
- IT risks are managed appropriately
COBIT released the fourth version of its control framework in December 2005. The framework approaches IT controls by looking at all of the information needed to support business requirements and the associated IT resources and processes. COBIT is intended for management, users, and auditors (mostly IT auditors). COBIT is by far the most adopted framework used for regulatory compliance, including Sarbanes-Oxley and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It is no surprise that all of the PCI DSS requirements maps directly to the COBIT IT processes.