AICPA, CICA offer tools to aid in corporate security and privacy.

• Position: Member news,American institute of certified public accountants - Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants

The AICPA and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants have updated the principles and criteria that form the basis for professional advisory, consulting and attestation engagements in Security, Privacy, Processing Integrity, Availability and Confidentiality. Using the new tools in Understanding and Implementing Trust Services, CPAs and CAs can evaluate a company, diagnose deficiencies at early stages, guide organizations to build appropriate controls and provide assurance to management and other stakeholders.

In today's volatile environment, where privacy, security and reliability of systems are vital to the confidence of customers, managers, regulators and employees, CPAs will use the Trust Services Principles and Criteria to offer professional guidance and consult on best practices.

E-commerce businesses and their customers perceive risks in doing business over the Internet; numerous studies prove that fraud, privacy infringement, security risk and even poor execution of basic transactions can bring businesses to a halt. Inherent in the advisory and assurance services offered by CPAs are strategic planning, readiness assessments, analysis of problems, systems design, implementation and monitoring.

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