Technology

The AICPA issued its annual ranking of the 10 technologies most likely to significantly affect practitioners, their clients and their employers in the coming year ( http://infotech.aicpa.org/resources/top++10+technologies/ ). For the first time, the AICPA invited members of ISACA to join the AICPA Information Technology (IT) section members and Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) credential holders in the voting. Heading the list for the fourth consecutive year was information security—the use of hardware, software and processes to protect an organization’s data. It was followed by assurance and compliance applications (that, for example, help companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and manage enterprise risk); disaster recovery and business-continuity-planning processes; IT governance methodologies; privacy management procedures; digital identity and authentication processes; wireless communication technologies; application and data integration techniques; paperless digital technologies; and “antispyware” applications, which detect and remove programs attempting to covertly gather and transmit confidential data.

The Institute and ISACA also entered into an agreement under which the CITP credential will be granted automatically to all CPAs who are AICPA members and also hold ISACA’s Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) credential. CPA/CISAs who wish to obtain the CITP credential under this agreement should visit http://infotech.aicpa.org/memberships/CPA.CISA+application.htm , where they can download the streamlined CPA/CISA application.