Network Penetration Testing for HR companies in Milwaukee (WI)
Network Penetration Testing for HR Companies in Milwaukee (WI)
HR and staffing firms in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin manage some of the most sensitive data in the state: Social Security numbers, background checks, payroll details, health information, and candidate histories. That makes HR systems a prime target for ransomware, phishing, and other cyberattacks aimed at stealing or locking employee and candidate data.
Attackers routinely use malware, phishing emails, password attacks, SQL injections, and ransomware to move from public-facing systems into HR platforms, applicant tracking systems (ATS), payroll portals, and cloud collaboration tools. The financial impact of breaches is substantial; for example, the median global cost of a data breach in 2021 was $4.24M—and that figure only covers reported incidents.
For HR organizations, the real risk is not just fines and legal exposure, but loss of trust from employees, candidates, and clients. To stay ahead of these threats, HR companies in the Milwaukee area need to regularly review, test, and upgrade their IT security controls through independent, realistic security assessments such as network penetration testing.
What Is Network Penetration Testing for HR Firms?
Network penetration testing (net-pen testing) is a controlled, ethical hacking exercise where our team simulates real-world cyberattacks against your HR IT environment—including office networks, VPNs, cloud services, and HR applications. The goal is simple: find the weaknesses before a criminal does and show exactly how far they can be taken in practice.
For HR companies in Milwaukee, a network penetration test can help:
Identify vulnerabilities in systems that process candidate and employee data (ATS, HRIS, payroll, timekeeping, benefits portals).
Test phishing resilience of recruiters, HR staff, and back-office teams who regularly handle sensitive data and attachments.
Verify the effectiveness of firewalls, VPNs, endpoint protection, and cloud configurations used to support remote work and branch offices across Wisconsin.
Support compliance efforts related to privacy, background checks, and data protection requirements that impact HR operations.
The outcome is a clear, non-technical view for leadership of what could realistically go wrong, how it would happen, and how to fix it.
Wisconsin Network Penetration Testing Experience
OCD Tech provides network penetration testing and IT security assessments for HR companies and other organizations in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. Our team has extensive experience delivering IT Risk Advisory and cybersecurity consulting services to businesses that manage large volumes of personal and confidential data, including HR, staffing, and professional services firms.
We combine hands-on ethical hacking expertise with a practical understanding of how HR operations actually work—high-volume recruiting, tight deadlines, heavy email use, shared file drives, cloud-based HR platforms, and third-party vendors. This allows us to design tests that:
Mirror realistic attack paths against HR networks, user accounts, and cloud services.
Uncover configuration weaknesses in VPNs, Wi-Fi, and remote access used by recruiters and HR managers.
Provide prioritized, business-friendly remediation steps rather than generic technical checklists.
The result is a focused penetration test that not only identifies vulnerabilities, but also delivers clear, actionable guidance on strengthening your security posture across Milwaukee and statewide operations.
Our Network Penetration Testing Methodology
OCD Tech follows a structured, repeatable methodology aligned with leading security practices. Each engagement is tailored to your HR systems, but typically includes:
Passive Reconnaissance – Quietly gathering information about your HR infrastructure, public-facing portals, and exposed services without active interaction.
Active Reconnaissance – Safely probing your network to identify live systems, open ports, and applications that support HR and business operations.
Social Engineering – Testing how susceptible staff may be to phishing emails, fake login pages, or voice scams targeting recruiters, HR specialists, and payroll teams.
Exploitation – Attempting to exploit discovered vulnerabilities to gain access to internal systems, while carefully controlling impact.
Post-Exploitation – Demonstrating what an attacker could do after gaining access, such as moving toward HR databases or file shares.
Privilege Escalation – Attempting to increase access from a basic user account to higher-level permissions, such as HR administrator or IT admin.
Lateral Movement – Testing whether an attacker could move from an initial entry point to other systems, such as payroll, benefits, or management reporting tools.
Maintain Access – Evaluating how easily a threat actor could persist within your environment (for example, through backdoors or misconfigurations).
Cover Tracks – Assessing the effectiveness of your logging, monitoring, and detection capabilities (Blue Team) against realistic attack techniques (Red Team).
Reporting – Delivering a clear report and executive briefing that explains what we did, what we found, how serious it is, and what to do next, in terms that HR and business leaders can act on.
This approach gives HR companies in Milwaukee a comprehensive view of real-world cyber risk, not just a scan of open ports.
National Reach
While we work closely with HR and staffing organizations in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin, OCD Tech also delivers network penetration testing and cybersecurity consulting across the United States, including:
Whether your HR team is centralized in Milwaukee or distributed across multiple cities, we can support a consistent, coordinated security assessment strategy.
Contact Our Milwaukee Network Penetration Testing Consultants
OCD Tech provides network penetration testing, ethical hacking, and cybersecurity consulting to HR companies, staffing agencies, and other organizations in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. If you would like to discuss how a targeted penetration test can help protect your HR data, reduce insider threat risk, and strengthen your overall IT security posture, please complete the form below. A member of our team will follow up with you shortly.
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