Applied Sarbanes Oxley at Work

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
What exactly is so odious about it? Can I get some examples? I've never had to deal with it because that's not my line of work at all.

Words cannot truly describe the amount of BS it is.

Literally, it is that bad. there are no words to describe it.

At its intentions it is a good idea. But it is a good idea taken WAY TOO FAR. Support services like finance, HR and IT claim something like 50% of their resources are devoted to SOX compliance. that is half your freakin' workforce.

Good point - segregation of duties. At its simple form that means somebody who can create an invoice cannot pay an invoice.

Bad point - you have too many people with access to your data centers and need to cut it down to 6 people. "but the operations staff is 145 folks and we have 8 people working the NOC. Do you realize just how much money this is going to cost me to implement your hairbrained schemes?"

SOX guy "you'll do what I say and like it all while paying me 300/hr and I have no idea what I'm actually talking about"

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: spidey07
I'll preach my theory once again (and I'm no tinfoil hat guy)

This legislation was created to save the auditing industry and nothing more. Just look at what was going on when it was passed. It exists solely to support/bolster a failing industry and little to do with the investor.

I still believe Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Oxley are large shareholders of the big 4.

Couldn't disagree more. This represents a misunderstanding of both the purpose of auditing and SOX, imo. The big firms are taking on an absolutely enormous expense at being SOX compliant for their clients, and it's no casual matter. The saying that goes around is that we're trying to "keep them out of jail"; that's our motivation, and it's real. As I said in my previous post, the integrity of our economy depends on it (in part). Is it the best step? Probably not, but it is a step... at least we're getting somewhere.

All IMO of course.

I see your point. But a few bad apples and big name stories do not an expense raping legislation require (especially when it's their own butts that needed saving)

But I still see it as creating your own market through legislation and that is what rubs me wrong.

 

[tarheelmm]

Originally posted by: Taggart

Originally posted by: tarheelmm
Curious as to what products peoples companies use to monitor email for SOX and such??

Isn't Legato EmailXtender used for this?

It is but I beleive Assentor to be the best. (Now MailManager from CA)

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: SampSon
I feel sorry for the paper you people at huge companies have to wade through.

If Enron ran things ethically then SOX wouldn't exist.

fixed