The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed by Congress and signed into law in July 2002. It was designed to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of company financial disclosures. Consequently, SOX imposed major changes in corporate governance, financial reporting and auditing practices, while creating new financial oversight functions. Regardless of levels of security, the failure to perform best practice due diligence up front and throughout would result in non-compliance. In addition, audit and risk assessments are valueless without processes for continuous process improvement.
SOX compliance requires organizations to demonstrate the availability, integrity, non-repudiation, and Privacy Statement of financial information and conduct continuous audits to ensure compliance. AMR Research, the Financial Executives Institute (FEI), and similar market trend analysis firms estimate annual SOX compliance costs to be in the range of $2 to $5 million for large organizations. Such costs are a financial burden every business subject to SOX has to bear — and they aren't expected to go away anytime soon. Failure to comply will be punished perhaps most of all through lost reputation in the marketplace.
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