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November 7, 2024
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Royal Bank of Canada – IT Systems Audit & Risk Advisory
Royal Bank of Canada, one of North America’s largest and most digitally advanced financial institutions, engaged our network to conduct a comprehensive IT systems audit and risk analysis. The engagement spanned all major business lines — including personal banking, wealth management, capital markets, and insurance — with a focus on evaluating infrastructure adequacy, cybersecurity posture, operational effectiveness, and regulatory alignment.
IT Systems Audit: Royal Bank of Canada – Powerpoint Presentation
Our goal was to deliver a clear picture of RBC’s risk exposure across its digital ecosystem and help define a roadmap for secure, scalable growth in the face of rising cyber threats and evolving regulatory pressures.
Scope of Work
Full-spectrum IT audit across 6 business units
Alignment with regulatory and compliance standards including OSFI, FSRA, GDPR, and internal enterprise risk frameworks
Evaluation of over 5,000 application teams operating on a hybrid cloud infrastructure
Identification and prioritization of strategic and tactical risks with targeted remediation playbooks
Areas of Assessment
1. Infrastructure Adequacy
Evaluated hybrid cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, private data centers)
Assessed disaster recovery and failover readiness across business lines
Reviewed asset lifecycle management and identified legacy technical debt
2. Operational Effectiveness
Mapped CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub, Vault, Ansible, and SonarQube
Assessed incident response workflows, DevOps maturity, and automation tooling
Measured business continuity through documented DR exercises
3. Cybersecurity Posture
Assessed defense architecture, SIEM/EDR systems, and threat detection workflows
Reviewed identity and access controls (RBAC, least privilege, MFA enforcement)
Evaluated vendor security and third-party risk management protocols
4. Data Architecture & AI Readiness
Investigated AI/ML data governance controls
Flagged risks related to data quality, lineage, and model explainability
Recommended enterprise-grade data quality tools and audit frameworks
Key Findings
Vendor & Licensing Gaps: Yellow ratings in every business line revealed the need for a formal vendor cybersecurity evaluation framework and greater transparency into third-party software lifecycles.
Legacy System Risk: Despite modern infrastructure, legacy dependencies in some internal applications risked impeding future agility.
Technical Debt Accumulation: Identified the lack of a unified technical debt registry or funding plan as a major barrier to architectural simplification.
Emerging Threats: RBC’s defenses were robust but at risk of lagging behind evolving global threat vectors and supply chain attacks.
⚠️ Top Strategic Risks Identified
Cybersecurity threat evolution outpacing current defense stack
Regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions (Canada, EU, US)
Cloud vendor lock-in due to reliance on specific hyperscalers
M&A IT integration complexity
Data governance gaps impacting AI/ML integrity
💡 Key Recommendations
Enhance Threat Intelligence Integration using SIEM and SOAR tooling
Accelerate Technical Debt Reduction via a task force and dedicated funding
Implement Advanced Data Quality Controls for AI model reliability
Strengthen Third-Party Risk Management with standardized cybersecurity scoring
Conduct Operational Resilience Drills simulating multi-system failures
📈 Outcomes
Delivered a risk reduction roadmap, estimated to reduce exposure by ~41%
Influenced RBC’s Digital Resilience Strategy and 2026 Cloud Optimization Plan
Led to follow-on engagements around vendor risk scoring and zero-trust implementation
Provided actionable insights that were presented to board-level stakeholders
🧩 Tools, Standards & Methodologies Used
NIST 800-30, MITRE ATT&CK, OSFI Tech Risk Guidelines
Tenable/Nessus for vulnerability management
ELK Stack for log analysis
Custom-built audit heatmaps and risk scoring matrices
Integration with RBC’s DevOps pipelines for live data
We delivered a multi-line IT audit and enterprise risk assessment for RBC, one of North America’s most sophisticated financial institutions. Our work uncovered legacy system risk, vendor compliance gaps, and cybersecurity blind spots. Our recommendations have been integrated into their 2026 resilience roadmap, enhancing their digital infrastructure, threat response, and operational agility.
Case Information
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Date: November 7, 2024
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Client: Oliver Wall & Associates
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Timeline: 2025 - 2025
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Service: Business Consulting, Coportate, Finance, IT Solutions, Technology