Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, often called SOX, is a U.S. federal law enacted in 2002 to make the financial disclosures of public companies more accurate and reliable. Named after its sponsors, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley, it requires executives to certify the accuracy of financial reports and requires companies to assess their internal controls over financial reporting, with outside auditors attesting to that assessment. The law also created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which oversees the audits of public companies.

In information technology, controls over who can access systems that handle financial data, how changes to those systems are managed and how audit records are kept are treated as core elements of SOX compliance.

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