The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard pertains to any company that stores, processes or transmits credit card information. If this applies to your company, you are required to be compliant with this private industry standard today. Depending on the volume of credit card transactions you process, the task of demonstrating compliance may include an annual on-site audit conducted by an external auditor. In any case, you don’t want to operate your business in a non-compliant state because the associated penalties can be severe. For instance, if a data breach occurs while you are noncompliant, you can be fined up to $500,000 per incident and suffer revocation of your right to accept or process credit card transactions. This could certainly be fatal to your business.