The Role of External Auditing in Supporting Cybersecurity Requirements under the COBIT 2019 Framework

Abstract

The research aimed to study cyber requirements according to the COBIT-2019 framework, while highlighting the role of external auditing in supporting regulatory controls to limit cyber violations and attacks. To achieve the research objectives, the researchers adopted the method of interviewing and an analysis study of financial reports for a sample of banks registered in the Iraq Stock Exchange, as well as auditing reports of an auditing company that issued for the financial year 2025. The interview questions included three axes. The first axis focused on studying external auditing for cybersecurity (consisted of ten questions). The second axis has adopted the COBIT-2019 framework in auditing cyber requirements and consists of seven questions. The last axis was the relationship between cybersecurity auditing and COBIT-2019 requirements and included seven questions. One of the most important conclusions reached by the research is the disparity between the auditing company and the sampled banks regarding the research that the knowledge of cyber requirements or the areas of the COBIT-2019 framework, which can see this gap, fundamentally reflects the assessment of governance requirements, information security and cyber risk management requirements.