Overview
In our comment letter to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) on SEC Release No. 34-100430, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB or Board); Notice of Filing of Proposed Rules on Amendments Related to Aspects of Designing and Performing Audit Procedures that Involve Technology-Assisted Analysis of Information in Electronic Form, we commended the efforts of the PCAOB to modernize its auditing standards related to the auditor’s use of technology-assisted analysis and generally supported the SEC’s approval of the amendments. However, we stated that the amendments to AS 1105.10A(b) could be viewed as departing from the foundational principles of the risk-based audit approach for considering the authenticity of external information used as audit evidence as outlined in AS 1105.08 through .10A(a).