Fines & penalties
Acquiring banks and card brands can levy monthly fines for non-compliance, and they climb the longer a gap stays open. A single unresolved finding often costs more than the audit that would have caught it.
↳ Financial
PCI Audit Service
Know exactly where your card data stands.
A Hoplon PCI audit measures how your business stores, processes, and transmits cardholder data against every applicable PCI DSS requirement. You finish with a clear view of where you stand, a prioritized list of what to fix, and the evidence you need to prove compliance to your bank and card brands.
- 12
- requirement domains every PCI DSS audit has to cover
- v4.0.1
- the current active standard all new requirements now mandatory
- 4
- merchant levels that decide whether you need an SAQ or a full ROC
- $100K/mo
- upper range of fines card brands can assess for sustained non-compliance
Why it matters
Cardholder data is a liability until you can prove it's protected.
If your business accepts, processes, or stores credit card payments, PCI DSS applies to you. The card brands built the standard to cut fraud and keep cardholder data safe, and the requirements are detailed hundreds of controls across twelve domains in the current v4.0.1 release.
Falling short does more than put your customers at risk. A breach can trigger heavy fines, higher processing fees, forensic investigation, and in the worst case the loss of your ability to accept card payments at all. Compliance is no longer a once-a-year formality; v4.0.1 expects you to maintain security every day.
Breach exposure
Stored card numbers, authentication data, and transaction logs are exactly what attackers want. A breach brings forensic costs, card-replacement fees, and notification duties that dwarf the price of prevention.
↳ Data loss
Lost processing rights
Acquirers can raise your transaction fees or pull your ability to accept cards entirely. For most businesses, losing card acceptance is the same as losing revenue overnight.
↳ Operational
Reputational damage
Customers rarely return after their card details leak on your watch. The trust you spent years earning can vanish with a single public incident and a headline.
↳ Trust
Audit fatigue
Treating compliance as a yearly scramble burns out your team and leaves gaps between assessments. v4.0.1 expects continuous controls, not a last-minute push before the deadline.
↳ Process
What the audit covers
One assessment. Every requirement that applies to you.
Scope & data-flow mapping
We trace every place cardholder data enters, moves through, and rests in your environment, then draw the boundary of what is actually in scope. You get an accurate map that keeps the audit focused and stops you paying to secure systems that never touch card data.
ScopingData flowCDE
Gap assessment
We measure your current controls against all twelve PCI DSS domains and flag every requirement you do not yet meet. You receive a plain-language report that tells you precisely what is missing and why it matters no jargon, no guesswork.
Gap analysisv4.0.1
Vulnerability & ASV scanning
We run internal and external scans across your in-scope systems and coordinate the quarterly ASV scans PCI requires. You get clear evidence that your network holds up to testing, plus a ranked list of anything that needs patching.
ASV scanQuarterly
Penetration testing
Our testers attempt to break into your cardholder data environment the way a real attacker would, then document exactly how far they got. You learn where your defenses hold and where they do not, before someone with bad intent finds out.
Pen testSegmentation
Remediation roadmap
We turn every finding into a prioritized plan with owners, effort estimates, and deadlines your team can act on. You move from a list of problems to a clear sequence of fixes, so compliance work fits around the business instead of stalling it.
RoadmapPrioritized
Report & attestation
We prepare the formal documentation your acquirer expects the SAQ or Report on Compliance and the signed Attestation of Compliance. You finish with bank-ready proof that your business meets PCI DSS, ready to hand over whenever it is asked for.
ROCSAQAOC
How it works
Four steps from uncertain to attested.
- 01
Discovery call
We learn how you take payments, which systems are involved, and your merchant level, so the audit is scoped to your business and nothing more.
- 02
Assessment
Our QSA-led team reviews your controls, runs the required scans and testing, and documents every requirement against PCI DSS v4.0.1.
- 03
Remediation support
We hand you a prioritized roadmap and stay available while your team closes the gaps no disappearing the moment the report lands.
- 04
Attestation
Once the gaps are closed, we produce the ROC or SAQ and signed AOC your acquirer needs, and set you up to stay compliant year-round.
Why Hoplon
The audit that ends with a clean report, not more questions.
PCI compliance is not a box you tick once a year it is a posture you hold every day. We build the audit around that reality.
Our assessors have walked businesses of every size through PCI DSS, from a single payment page to multi-site card environments. We translate a long, dense standard into plain decisions, keep your scope as small as it can safely be, and leave you with documentation an acquirer accepts without follow-up questions.
Works with your payment stack
StripeAdyenBraintreeAuthorize.NetSquare
- 01
QSA-led, end to end
The same assessors who scope your environment write your final report, so nothing gets lost in handoffs.
- 02
Scope kept lean
We work to shrink your cardholder data environment, which lowers both your risk and the ongoing cost of staying compliant.
- 03
Plain-English findings
Every gap is explained in language your team and your board can act on, not in auditor shorthand.
- 04
Built for v4.0.1
We assess against the current standard and its continuous-monitoring expectations, so your compliance survives past the report date.
We thought we were compliant until Hoplon mapped our data flows. They cut our scope in half, fixed the real gaps, and handed our bank a clean report the first time.
Director of FinanceRegional eCommerce Retailer · Level 2 Merchant
Common questions
What businesses actually ask on the first call.
Usually, yes. Outsourcing payments can shrink your scope dramatically, but it rarely removes it entirely your website, your staff, and your network still touch the transaction. We confirm exactly what applies to you on the first call.
Your merchant level decides. Smaller merchants typically self-assess with a Self-Assessment Questionnaire, while higher-volume merchants need a formal Report on Compliance signed off by a QSA. We tell you which path is yours before any work starts.
It depends on your scope and how mature your controls already are. A focused gap assessment can wrap in a couple of weeks; a full ROC for a complex environment takes longer. The discovery call gives you a realistic timeline up front.
There is no pass-or-fail surprise. We find the gaps, hand you a prioritized roadmap, and support your team while you close them then complete the report once you are ready. The goal is getting you compliant, not catching you out.
v4.0.1 added no new requirements; it clarified existing ones. The bigger change is that all of v4.0’s future-dated requirements became mandatory in 2025, so every one is now in scope for your assessment. We make sure you are measured against the current standard.
Pricing tracks your scope the number of systems, locations, and the report type you need. Because we work to keep your cardholder data environment small, we often reduce both the audit cost and what you spend maintaining compliance afterward.
Free consultation · QSA-led · No obligation
Find your gaps before an attacker does.
Spend half an hour with a Hoplon assessor. We'll walk through how you handle card data, confirm your merchant level and scope, and outline the fastest route to a clean PCI report. You'll leave with clear next steps whether or not we run the audit.