Greater Boston Chapter of the IIA

The IIA is bringing 10 seminar courses to Boston, MA, July 31 – August 3, 2012,and as a participant you will benefit from:

Your choice of courses:

• Audit Manager Tools and Techniques
• Auditing Investment Activities
• Auditor-in-charge Tools and Techniques
• Beginning Auditor Tools and Techniques
• Developing a Fraud Risk Management Program for Your Organization
• Enterprise Risk Management:An Introduction
• Operational Auditing:Evaluating Procurement and Sourcing
• Operational Auditing:Evaluating the Supply Chain
• Operational Auditing:Influencing Positive Change
• Assessing Risk: Ensuring Internal Audit’s Value
• Assessing Your Organization’s Risk Management Process

An additional members-only discount when you log in and register before June 15, 2012. The lower pricing will be reflected during registration.

• The training you want.
• Best-in-classfacilitators.
• Convenient and comfortablelocations.
• The best value in thebusiness.

Register and Save

For a limited time, save an additional 20% off the price of a second IIA course when you register for any two courses at any of our 2012 seminar locations.Training a group? Take advantage ofour 4-for-3 courses offer. Register and pay for three seminars courses at the same IIA seminar location and the fourth course is on the house

Contact Customer Relations at customerrelations@theiia.org or +1-407-937-1111 for details.

As an Added Bonus . . .

Attend the next Boston Chapter meeting and you may be eligible towin a free IIA CIA Learning System valued at US $745! The IIA’s CIA Learning System is an interactive print and Web-based program that teaches the entire CIA exam syllabus in an interactive and convenient format. It is the first CIA preparation program offering content and questions that are aligned with the IPPF. For more information or to try a free demo, visit www.LearnCIA.com.

by: Anthony Morton-Aiken, Grant Thornton

On Tuesday March 27th 2012, 15 Chapter members were in attendance at Protiviti’s offices for a half-day seminar on “Hot Topics in Security and Privacy” presented by Scott Laliberte – Managing Director in the Protiviti Philadelphia office. Scott spoke to the audience on IT Security and Data Privacy topics, including the cost of data breaches, the risks associated, approaches to security, and data loss prevention tools as well as developments in Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards, compliance requirements, and costs associated with compliance.

The seminar was a combination of classic classroom instruction and interactive discussion of US Data Breaches, the global privacy regulation landscape, and ideas for Security improvements. Key messages from the session included facts on data breaches and PCI compliance applicability and implementation such as:

• 545 million sensitive records have been breached in the US since 2005, with 1.5 million breached in Q1 2012 alone. At an average cost of $200/record breached, this amounts to a significant loss for the companies involved;

• 40% of breaches over the last 5 years are as a result of third (and fourth) parties failing to have appropriate controls in place;

• A prepared incident response plan is vital to ensuring that any data loss event is handled effectively, quickly, and in line with forensic investigation requirements;

• Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards are highly complex (currently 288 required controls), and any company that stores, processes or transmits customer credit card information is required to comply with the standards; and

• Based on Protiviti’s experience, on average, large merchants and service providers spent $8m-$12m to achieve PCI compliance in projects ranging from 18 to 24 months, with fines of up to $500,000 for each instance of non-compliance.

Discount for New Members!!!!!

Click here for more information

Please click here to access a new IIA - CIA Exam Training Flyer

Attention Greater Boston IIA chapter members.The 2012 International IIA Conference is fast-approaching please be aware that chapter member can still register at a cost of $1,395 and will notbe assessed the $200 fee for not reserving a room by using the link can be found here:

Also, for groups interested in registering 8 people and receiving the 9th free, please correspond using the following email account or phone number to facilitate the processing: iia2012boston@metroconnections.com. Registration Phone #: 855-442-2012

On Friday February 10, 2012 over 30 chapter members were in attendance at Wolf and Company’s offices for an all-day seminar on “Detecting, Preventing and Reporting Internal and External Fraud” presented by CPE interactive.  CPEinteractive’s Director of Fraud Detection & Prevention Training, Peter Goldman, CFE, spoke to the audience on topics ranging from internal audit’s role in fraud risk mitigation to issues with internal information theft and cyber-crime to fraud detection techniques.

The seminar was a combination of classic classroom instruction and interactive discussion of fraud events, experiences and ideas.  Several take aways from the session included facts on fraud such as:

§  75% of the companies surveyed experienced atleast one incident of fraud in the last 12 months (KPMG);

§  Average cost for each incident of fraud is $160K (ACFE); and

§  Approximately 60% of corporate fraud is committed by insiders (PwC).

Also ways of identifying and combating fraudand fraud schemes were discussed including:

Fraud team brainstorming; Choosing the high level fraud risks in key processes to further analyze; and Conducting a detailed fraud risk assessment.

On Thursday, December 1, over 80 business students attended the Northeastern University Internal Audit Student Night, co-hosted by the Northeastern University Accounting Department and the Greater Boston Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors.  The Internal Audit Panel was comprised of internal auditors of all levels working at companies in the Boston-metro area.  The panelists (and company) were Coretta Lau, (John Hancock), Luis Alvarez (John Hancock), Jeremy Lavallee(Liberty Mutual), Rachael Langevin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Jeff Gibbs(Biogen Idec), Donna Quirk (Bose), and Michael Lewis (Hologic).  The panel was moderated by Michael Lewis,Chief Audit Executive of Iron Mountain.

The panel discussion started with Mr.Lewis asking the panel to define internal auditing in their own terms and experiences, and why students should seek careers in internal auditing.  The audience learned about a typical day working in an internal audit department, as well as the skills and competencies necessary to succeed as an entry-level internal auditor.  Of course, any conversation about internal auditing wouldn’t be complete without talking about travel. The students listened and learned from the panelists about their favorite travel stories,travel locations, and even learned some tricks of the trade for their own future travel. 

Charlie Bame-Aldred, Professor of Accounting at Northeastern University, expands, ”The Greater Boston Chapter ofthe IIA provided Northeastern University students from multiple academic disciplines an insight into a company’s self-governance.  The session provided students with adifferent career path.  Instead of focusing solely on public accounting, Northeastern and the IIA highlighted internal audit as a direct competitor for human resource talents for new graduates and seasoned professionals. The students heard about opportunities for international travel, to work with senior level executives, to continuously learn about a number of relevant areas in a company, and to become a senior level employee.  The students asked a number of questions that were ably answered by the panel. These types of programs are necessary to maintain the flow of quality individuals in the internal audit profession.

Following the panel discussion,students were invited to participate in a networking hour to speak with representatives from local area companies, including Ernst & Young,Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Fidelity, Bose, BiogenIdec, Protiviti, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual, RSM McGladrey, and others.

Overall, the Northeastern University Student night was deemed a huge success by all in attendance.   Amanda Smalley, Manager of Internal Audit Services at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Vice President of the Greater Boston Chapter of the IIA, explains, “The student participation at last week's Greater Boston IIA student night at NEU was extremely exciting. The GB IIA's Academics

Committee did a great job in providing students an opportunity to hear from a diverse panel of IA professionals with varying levels of experience and responsibilities followed by a time for one-on-one networking with professionals working in the IA field in Boston.  Representatives from Internal Audit departments and practices from some of top companies and professional services firms in the nation participated in the networking portion of the event.  The relationship between Northeastern and the GB Chapter of the IIA continues to strengthen and offer great opportunities to educate future professionals about the exciting and diverse experience that a career in IA offers.  We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Northeastern in the future!

Click here for photos from the event

-    Tom O’Reilly

Tenth Annual IIA and BAP Student Night at Bentley University  

The tenth annual Internal Audit Student Night and Career Fair was co-hosted by Bentley University’s Beta Alpha Psi and the Greater Boston Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) on October 25, 2011. Participatingcompanies included: Biogen Idec, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Deloitte, Ernst &Young, Grant Thornton, Hologic, Interactive Data, Iron Mountain, John Hancock,KPMG, Liberty Mutual, McGladrey, National Grid, PricewaterhouseCoopers,Protiviti, State Street Bank, TJX Companies, Inc., and Wolf & Company.

Alex Rusate, the Vice President of Beta Alpha Psi,introduced Dr. Priscilla Burnaby, who teaches internal auditing at Bentley. She compared internal auditors to rock stars and superheroes. She said, “It is the job of internal auditors to improve systems and to find fraud and waste in organizations. Bentley has the only internal auditprogram in New England that is affiliated with The Institute of Internal Auditors.” The second speaker, Michael A. Barry the Vice President of InternalAudit at Iron Mountain, spoke about the internal auditor’s role in anorganization. He said that internal auditors are, “An independent and objective team providing assuranceand consulting services. They provide assurance that management is following policies and practices so corporate objectives arebeing meet with adequate controls to stop misstatement and misappropriation ofassets. They are experts in governance, risk and control that are team players who add value to the organization.”

Scott Baranowski, Director of Internal Audit at Wolf & Company, introduced a Bentley alumni, Meredith Hart whoworks as an internal auditor in his firm. She described several types of consulting services including: management meetings, risk assessment, system conversion, Sarbanes Oxley compliance and new product roll outs. Peter Galop, Senior Auditor from State Street Bank, spoke about the challenges and benefits of working in internal auditing.  He discussed the learning curve in understanding how to audit and the business works. He talked about meeting with senior management early in hiscareer and the great exposure this was for a new internal auditor. He also spoke about working with teams and how collaborative the audit process wasduring the review.

Paul Kiley, Director at McGladrey, and his staff, Brendan Day, Jeff Lord and Jeremy Maturi, spoke about the diverse types of audits they have worked on including: accounting and finance, human resources, manufacturing, information technology, sales, customer service, research and development, and contract management. They perform audits all over the world in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Orient.

Dr. Burnaby concluded the presentation part of theprogram with her rap, “Internal Auditing Extraordinaire.”

If I had to rap I’d like to say that a career in Internal Auditing is the only way!

Hey Hey

Internalauditors are super heroes that protect stakeholders every day.

Hey Hey

Internal auditors helpmanagement by reducing many risks.

Hey Hey

And prevent fraudsters fromgetting their kicks.

Hey Hey

InternalAuditors get respect and make lots of money.

Hey Hey

Whileadding value and catching bad guys which is not funny.

Hey Hey

Thursday October 6th, 2011 marked the inaugural event of theIIA Young Professionals.  The event was held at the McGladrey officelocated in Charlestown, MA where Dave Clarkson, Director of HR, for McGladreyspoke to those in attendance regarding “Networking Tips & Tricks”to apply in a variety of situations, whether the goal is to entertainprospective clients or find a new loved one!  Those in attendancewere entertained by Dave’s ability to capture the true value of greatnetworking skills and learned how to apply simple concepts to enhance theirability to mingle with ease.  The presentation was followed by anhour of cocktails, appetizers and the application of our new found networkingskills!  Please stay tuned for upcoming IIA Young Professionals events!

Please click for photos!