(1) A formal examination by certified auditors of systems, programming, operations and security to determine compliance with internal policies and procedures or with external standards. An audit is often used to satisfy legal requirements of regulatory agencies and laws. See
assessment,
COBIT,
COSO,
ISO/IEC 27000,
SAS 70 and
SSAE 16.
(2) An examination of systems, programming and datacenter procedures in order to determine the efficiency of computer operations.