Sarbanes-Oxley Sucks (Really)

I work in IT (Information Technology). I used to have an exciting, creative job, I created system solutions to solve business problems and increase productivity. Thanks to the new Sarbanes-Oxley laws, my job is now mired in so much bureaucracy that motor vehicle personnel are green with envy. We can’t make a move in IT without “someone in the business” signing off giving us permission to do our jobs. Since when does “someone in the business” understand IT? Does the world really want business people making complicated technology decisions? Wouldn’t it be better to have your technologists doing that?

It seems that somehow IT people are now considered criminals, our every move is monitored and recorded by "someone in the business." Excuse me, wasn’t it “someone in the business” who was walking away with all the corporate assets? I don’t remember seeing programmers with Rolex’s. It gets even better, after we document every detail of our jobs and get all the proper sign-offs; we have to save the documentation for ten years! But that's not all folks! The big government bureaucracy isn’t done with us yet; SC Magazine says they want more. Bored with looking at back-up logs, userid requests, failed logon attempts, approved change control, and segregation of duties matrices, the government wants to see:

“According to SOX section 404, public companies are required to undergo annual evaluation of procedures. Many companies were required to archive, log and make available on request all email and IM messages by July this year.”

I better stop sending emails to my husband at lunch. I would hate to be on trial for breaking Sarbanes-Oxley laws and have all my personal email submitted as some kind of evidence of a crime. "You see ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defendant is clearly in violation of SOX Section 404. We've crosschecked the email traffic from ABC Co. with the email traffic from her husband's company. We've noticed that she failed to put one of her emails into the archives. This email discrepancy proves that ABC Co. has a significant deficiency in their record keeping. Clearly, we can't believe that ABC Co. has accurate financial records, today missing email, tomorrow missing financial statements. Lock her up boys."

I can see it now, the next signed-off and approved IT request I get will be for a giant email and IM archival and retrieval system. It will probably be hugely expensive and consume the time of the IT group. We won't be working on any improvements to our business applications. I used to add value to my company with creative IT solutions, now I collect approvals and archive them. All over the country millions of dollars are spent bringing IT into “compliance”. Are the benefits worth the risks? Is the law going after the right people? Do you really think that the jails need to start overflowing with techno geeks wearing pocket protectors and coke bottle glasses? Were the IT folks really at the bottom of the corporate scandals? I don’t think so. We are however, being punished for it.

Read more here: SARBANES-OXLEY SUCKS
And here: Sarbanes Oxley : Surviving Sarbanes-Oxley
Here too: Sox Sucks :: AO
Again: Presumed Guilty: The Injustice and Destruction of Sarbanes-Oxley - The Ayn Rand Institute

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