SOURCES OF ERROR

Equipment as a source of error

The failure of a mechanical part is a hazard of the operation of peripheral input/ output
and storage devices. Such a failure can result in an error in reading data during an input operation, in an
error in writing data onto storage, or in an error in the printing of data.
Three General Causes of Mechanical Failure
1. Defective media
2. Problems with the movement, speed, or timing of a transport mechanism.
3. A fault in a read/write mechanism.
Data Communications as a source of error
In data communications, data are transmitted in the form of an electrical signal. An
inadvertent change in this signal will result in the data received being in some way different from the
data sent. Data communications is the one area where the auditor should expect errors to be frequent
(making detection and correction essential).
Note: Of these two sources of error, the Data Communications is by far the more important.
Errors related to the communications of data