Week 5 DQ3

What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002? Why did it come about? How have the new rules in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 affected the way accounting departments and companies operate? What are some positive outcomes from these changes?

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires that all publicly traded U.S. corporations are required to sustain a satisfactory structure of internal controls. In addition to internal controls each organization must be able to confirm their compliance by an independent outside audit. SOX came about because of public outrage to lack of corporate integrity and accounting dishonesty. Major corporations such as Enron and WorldCom were dishonestly reporting accounting figures to investors and such dishonesty led to the major losses in investor's money. SOX...