Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems 12th Edition by Carolyn Strand Norman, Mark Simkin

Exercise 14

Mark Goodwin, a computer programmer, had a grudge against his company. To get even, he coded a special routine in the mortgage loan program that erased a small, random number of accounts on the disk file every time the program was run. The company did not detect the routine until almost all of its records had been erased. Discuss what controls might have protected this company from its own programmer.