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Status Not under consideration
Created by Guest
Created on Jan 29, 2024

Sweep Frameworkt - Introduce a new SystemField like "SweepStatisticLastModifiedDate" instead of using "DateLastModified" for just statistic updates

We discovered by chance that the DateLastModified of a Policy Controlled Sweeps states that the last change on that object was made on a public holiday, where nobody was working.

Policy-controlled sweeps keeps also the corresponding statistics. We discoverd that the DateLastModified matches the defined run time for the configured schedules in the policy-controlled sweep. We must therefore assume that the DateLastModified is adjusted with each run and the resulting update of the statistics. The LastModifier remains the one that effectively last changed something on the object of the policy-controlled sweep itself.

As a rule, DateLastModified and LastModifier are perceived by auditers as a coherent pair. For the auditor, it therefore states that the user named under LastModifier has changed something on this object at the said time in accordance with DateLastModified.

The LastModifier for example can therefore contain a ID of a former employee, but the DateLastModified is adjusted on an ongoing basis. In my view, this represents a state that is not correct and will hardly be understood in the context of an audit. Especially as nothing is changed in the object itself, only the statistics are updated. In terms of terminology i think this behavior is not correct. In the context of an audit, the legitimate question could arise as to why a user has made changes to an object in production outside of a defined maintenance window. Especially when the User stored under last modifier has left the company meahnwhile.

To be fair, it will not often happens that PolicySweeps will be in scope of an audit, but its allthoutgh possible and could have serious consequences for the client in the context of such an audit.

Of course, this can probably also be made clear to an auditor with appropriate explanations. But this is usually associated with additional effort because audits require evidence-based facts. It is not enough to tell the auditor that only the statistics have been updated and the last modifier has nothing to do with it. An auditor/revisor will not understand why the LastModifier is not related to DateLastModified, especially if the ID of the LastModifier is a former employee and DateLastModifed is more recent than the date on which the employee left the company.

It is certainly debatable whether the updating of the statistics should led to a change in the DateLastModifed field. From my point of view and from a audit perspective, I consider this terminology to be incorrect and would suggest to introduce a new SystemField like "SweepStatisticLastModifiedDate" to cover statistic updates, instead of updating the DateLastModified field.

Or subsequently the LastModifier is also updated during a statistics update, ideally with the owner of the sweep. I don't think this is correct terminology either, but at least it would be consistent.
 

Idea priority Low
  • Admin
    MATT Vest
    Reply
    |
    Feb 27, 2024

    Recommendation is to enable 'update event' auditing on the sweep policy object rather than the last modified date and user. The reason is, if multiple updates are made, you’ll only see the last update if you’re only looking at those two properties.