[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether software installed on Albany Water Board (AWB) computers and mobile devices is appropriate and necessary.

Key Findings

Software installed on AWB computers and mobile devices is not always appropriate and necessary.

Specifically, officials did not:

• Ensure only appropriate and necessary software was installed on computers and mobile devices. We found unnecessary software on 60 computers (97 percent) and six mobile devices (32 percent) including gaming, streaming and shopping software.
• Establish controls to prevent computer and mobile device users from downloading applications from application stores.
• Maintain application and software inventories for all mobile devices.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that only appropriate and necessary software and applications are installed on computers and mobile devices.
• Request that the Information Technology (IT) Department disable the application store on mobile devices.
• Perform an inventory of applications installed on unmanaged mobile devices.

AWB officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated, or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.