When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn What Does Audit Trail Mean?
An audit trail, in the context of IT, is a chain of evidence in the form of hard or electronic business transactions or communications resulting from business processes, functions or programming executions.
Advertisements
Techopedia Explains Audit Trail
An audit trail describes the chronological sequence of transactions, communications or both, and serves as a tool for facilitating financial or legal research and investigations to verify that all involved parties are fair, honest and truthful.
An audit trail may involve a specific purchase, sale or instance of noncompliance and includes a number of applications across a variety of fields, including:
- Telecommunications
- Information security/auditing
- Communication security/auditing
- Accounting (hard copy or electronic documentation)
- Medical investigations
- Research investigations
- Legal investigations
Advertisements
