A computer security audit is a manual or systematic measurable technical assessment of a system or application. Manual assessments include interviewing staff, performing security vulnerability scans, reviewing application and operating system access controls, and analyzing physical access to the systems. Automated assessments, or Computer Assisted Auditing Techniques include system generated audit reports or using software to monitor and report changes to files and settings on a system. Systems can include personal computers, servers, mainframes, network routers, switches. Applications can include Web Services, Microsoft Project Central, Oracle Database.

Information Security Audit is further divided based on scope: