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IT AUDITS AND ASSESSMENT SERVICES


The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist and play a precise role in your IT environment.

The purpose of an assessment is to measure something or calculate a value for it. Although the process producing an assessment may involve an audit by an independent professional, its purpose is to provide a measurement rather than to express an opinion about the fairness of statements or quality of performance. As a general rule, audits should always be an independent evaluation that will include some degree of quantitative and qualitative analysis whereas an assessment infers a less independent and more consultative approach.

An information technology audit, or information systems audit, is an examination of the management controls within an Information technology (IT) infrastructure. The evaluation of obtained evidence determines if the information systems are safeguarding assets, maintaining data integrity, and operating effectively to achieve the organization's goals or objectives. These reviews may be performed in conjunction with a financial statement audit, internal audit, or other form of attestation engagement.

From the small business to large enterprise, Cyanre has a variety of audits and assessments in order to help shape, guide and maintain your IT environment, namely:


NETWORK ASSESSMENTS


The electronic assessment entails using a combination of tools both hardware and software based. The main product which we use for discovery and trending of the utilization of the network is Protocol and Integrated Network Analyzer. The necessity of such an assessment is is clearly understandable in the report which includes the following:

  • Network Diagram - Using SNMP information a simple logical diagram showing switch and server connections are provided.
  • Network Discovery - All connected devices such as switches, routers, workstations and printers.
  • Network Utilization - Per port in a managed switch environment and global in a hub environment.
  • Network Errors - Per port in a managed switch environment and global in a hub environment.
  • Configuration Issues - Incorrect IPs, Subnet masks, and Duplicate IPs.
  • Network Structure - IP Subnets, IPX Nets, and NetBIOS Domains.
  • IP Inventory - Complete assessment of IP Addresses and Subnet masks.
  • IPX Inventory - Net name, Mac to IPX, Duplicate IPX, IPX encapsulation, and IPX routing.
  • NetBIOS Inventory - Domain names, NetBOIS to IP, WIndows OS, Duplicate NetBIOS, and IP, IPX, and NetBUI protocols..

Please note that some of these reports will only be available if the network switches you have installed are configured with IP addresses, SNMP is enabled and the read-only SNMP community string is made available to Cyanre, we have manageable switches available on loan for instances where clients have older or less intelligent equipment installed.

Diagrams and Drawings

Using both hardware and software based equipment we can extract the required information from your network switches and provide adequate network drawings of actual connected devices. This capability is possible only with network switches that has SNMP (Simple Network Monitoring Protocol) installed on the operating firmware of the switch, we can supply loan network switches to those customers who does not have the capability on their current switches and assist in providing the same drawing result.

Device Discovery

Device discovery can help you in two major ways: Determine who and what in on the network, and help managing your electronic assetts. Knowing what is connected on your network is an important security risk management factor for any organisation, knowing who and what is on the network helps you to manage and secure your resources. Having a clear asset registry of your electronic devices connected to the network can help manage your asset register and assist with financial planning.

Utilisation Monitoring

The aim of this assessment is to identify the network interface (Ethernet) with the highest average utilization. This indicates the bandwidth utilization of the specific network interface. Please note that a lot of serial connections are listed under the top 10 interfaces, analysis is done on the Ethernet interfaces for the purpose of this document.

Bandwidth is the transmission capacity of an electronic pathway such as a communications line, computer bus or computer channel.

Network utilization is the ratio of current network traffic to the maximum traffic that the port can handle. Through monitoring network utilization, we can understand whether the network is busy, normal or idle and identify devices that causes high utilisation.

High utilisation from devices can cause other network resources to become unresponsive or in worst case scenarios cause major downtime, from devices like faulty network switches, routers, old network interfaces on computers or simple network fly lead may have a negative effect on your network health.

Conflict and Error Detection

The aim of this assessment is to identify the network interface with the highest average error rate. The error rate indicates the number of errors experienced during transmission and is expressed as normalised average error rate of utilised bandwidth.

Error Rate Calculations

What the above indicates is that anything above 1% error rate on your network is unacceptable and devices causing these errors will affect other devices on the network.

LAN Cable Verification Tests

In copper twisted pair wire networks, copper cable certification is achieved through a thorough series of tests in accordance with Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) or International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. These tests are done using a certification-testing tool, which provide “Pass” or “Fail” information.

While certification can be performed by the owner of the network, certification is primarily done by certified cable test technicians. This certification allows us to verify and warrant your network cable infrastructure and the quality of work provided by your installer.