Network Penetration Testing for Colleges and Universities companies in New Orleans
Network Penetration Testing for Colleges and Universities in New Orleans
Higher education institutions in New Orleans and across Louisiana manage highly sensitive data: student records, financial aid information, research data, donor details, and healthcare information from campus clinics. This makes colleges and universities prime targets for ransomware groups, data thieves, and disruptive attackers.
Common attacks against campuses in Louisiana include phishing emails to faculty and students, malware on lab workstations, password attacks against VPNs and learning platforms, SQL injections on web portals, and ransomware on administrative networks. According to recent studies, the average cost of a reported data breach in 2021 reached $4.24M (source)—and that only reflects incidents that are voluntarily disclosed.
For universities, the impact is not just financial. A serious incident can disrupt registration, online classes, research projects, grant timelines, and campus operations, while damaging reputation with students, parents, and accreditation bodies. To stay ahead of these threats, higher education leaders in New Orleans need to regularly review, test, and improve their cybersecurity controls, rather than waiting for an actual breach.
Network penetration testing (often called a pentest) is a controlled, ethical hacking exercise where security professionals simulate real-world cyberattacks against your network, systems, and users. The goal is simple: find the weaknesses before a criminal does. A well-executed penetration test helps campus leadership:
Identify and prioritize vulnerabilities across administrative, academic, research, and student networks.
Validate existing security controls such as firewalls, endpoint protection, MFA, and email security.
Support compliance requirements including FERPA, HIPAA (for health services), PCI DSS (for payments), and research data obligations.
Improve incident response readiness across IT, security, and campus leadership teams.
Louisiana Higher Education Penetration Testing Experience
OCD Tech provides network penetration testing and IT security assessments to colleges, universities, and educational systems in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana. Our team combines hands-on penetration testing, red team engagements, and broader cybersecurity consulting experience across:
Public and private universities
Community and technical colleges
Research institutions and medical schools
Multi-campus systems and satellite locations
We understand the realities of higher education in Louisiana: open campus culture, diverse devices, legacy systems, research networks, student housing networks, and budget constraints. Our approach is designed to provide practical, prioritized recommendations that your IT and security teams can actually implement—without shutting down academic work.
The result is a clear, executive-ready penetration test report that not only highlights vulnerabilities, but also explains business impact, risk level, and specific remediation steps tailored to your institution.
Network Penetration Testing Methodology
OCD Tech follows a structured and repeatable penetration testing methodology aligned with industry best practices. For higher education environments, this typically includes:
Passive Reconnaissance – Quietly collecting publicly available information about your institution, domains, and exposed services without touching internal systems.
Active Reconnaissance – Safely scanning and mapping your environment to identify live systems, open ports, and potential entry points.
Social Engineering (as scoped) – Testing how susceptible faculty, staff, and sometimes students are to phishing and impersonation attempts.
Exploitation – Attempting to leverage identified weaknesses (misconfigurations, missing patches, weak passwords) to gain unauthorized access, within agreed boundaries.
Post-Exploitation – Assessing what an attacker could do after gaining a foothold: access to student data, research systems, financial records, or internal applications.
Privilege Escalation – Attempting to move from a low-level account to administrative or domain-wide control, mimicking realistic attacker behavior.
Lateral Movement – Testing how easily an attacker can move between administrative, academic, research, and student networks.
Maintaining Access – Evaluating how long an attacker could remain in the environment undetected (assumed compromise scenarios).
Covering Tracks – Reviewing logging and monitoring to understand whether security tools and teams would detect malicious activity.
Reporting & Executive Briefing – Delivering a clear report and debrief session with both technical staff and leadership, covering findings, risk, and remediation priorities.
This methodology can be adapted for internal and external networks, wireless networks, residence hall networks, cloud services, and specific critical systems such as learning management systems, student information systems, and research environments.
National Reach
While OCD Tech works extensively with Louisiana colleges and universities, we also provide network penetration testing services nationwide, including:
This broader experience allows us to bring best practices from campuses across the U.S. back to institutions in New Orleans and Louisiana.
Contact Our Louisiana Network Penetration Testing Consultants
OCD Tech provides network penetration testing, ethical hacking, and cybersecurity consulting to colleges, universities, and educational organizations in New Orleans and across Louisiana. If you would like to discuss how a penetration test can help protect your students, faculty, research, and operations, complete the form below and a team member will follow up with you shortly.
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