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What is SOX?
SOX refers to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a US law enacted in 2002 in response to the infamous, high-profile Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom accounting scandals. This legislation aims to protect shareholders from misrepresentation and fraud of financial data as well as from accounting errors. It The SOX rules strive to promote corporate accountability and prevent record tampering by improving the transparency and disclosure of information. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administers the act and sets deadlines for compliance.

How does SOX affect IT departments?
IT departments are responsible for storing the company’s electronic records. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act states that all business records, including electronic records and electronic messages, must be saved for no less than 5 years. Therefore, the IT department is faced with the challenge of cost-effectively creating and maintaining a corporate records archive that satisfies SOX requirements.

Who must comply?
SOX is applicable to all public US companies. SOX has also created a corporate governance benchmark for all businesses to establish and adhere to systematic records management.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?
The repercussions of non-compliance include fines and imprisonment ranging from up to 5 to 20 years.

 

 

In addition to SOX, IPS also provides compliance consulting services specialized in the following areas:

• PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards)
• PA-DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standards)
• SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70)