Network Penetration Testing for Colleges and Universities in Santa Fe

 

Colleges and universities in Santa Fe and across New Mexico hold highly valuable data: student records, financial aid information, research data, health records, and donor information. This makes higher education a frequent target for ransomware, phishing, credential theft, and other cyberattacks. Criminals know that academic environments are open by design, with many users, many devices, and often limited central control.

The average cost of a reported data breach reached $4.24 million in 2021 (source), and that figure does not include unreported incidents. For a college or university in Santa Fe, this can mean lost class time, disrupted research, regulatory investigations, reputational damage, and long-term loss of community trust.

Network penetration testing (also known as net-pen testing or ethical hacking) is a controlled, simulated cyberattack against your campus IT infrastructure. The goal is simple: identify and safely exploit vulnerabilities before real attackers do. For higher education, this typically includes testing:

• Campus networks and Wi‑Fi accessible to students, faculty, and visitors

• Data centers, on‑premise servers, and cloud-hosted systems

• Student information systems, learning management systems, HR and finance platforms

• Remote access, VPN, and privileged accounts used by IT staff and researchers

The results give institutional leadership a clear view of actual security risk, help verify the effectiveness of existing controls, support regulatory and accreditation requirements, and guide budget decisions for IT security improvements.

 

Santa Fe Network Penetration Testing Experience

 

OCD Tech provides network penetration testing and IT security assessments to colleges, universities, and educational organizations in Santa Fe and throughout New Mexico. Our team combines hands-on penetration testing expertise with a strong understanding of higher education environments, including:

• Open campus networks and shared lab environments

• Research systems handling sensitive or regulated data

• Hybrid setups with both on‑premise and cloud‑based academic systems

• Constraints around academic freedom, privacy, and decentralized IT

We focus on delivering more than a simple vulnerability list. Each engagement includes practical, prioritized remediation guidance tailored to your institution’s size, risk tolerance, and resources. The outcome is a penetration test that not only reveals weaknesses but also offers actionable steps to strengthen your security posture across campus.

 

Network Penetration Testing Methodology

 

OCD Tech follows a structured and repeatable penetration testing methodology designed to mirror real-world attackers while maintaining strict safety and coordination with your IT team. Depending on scope and campus needs, our testing may include:

• Passive Reconnaissance – Collecting information about your college or university from public sources without touching internal systems (for example, exposed subdomains, leaked credentials, or misconfigured services).

• Active Reconnaissance – Safely scanning and mapping your external and internal networks to identify live systems, open ports, and potential weaknesses.

• Social Engineering (where authorized) – Testing how well your staff and students can spot phishing and other manipulation techniques, highlighting human-factor risks.

• Exploitation – Attempting to use identified vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access, simulating real attacker behavior while preserving system stability.

• Post‑Exploitation – Determining what an attacker could do after gaining a foothold, such as accessing student data, research information, or administrative systems.

• Privilege Escalation – Attempting to gain higher-level access, such as domain admin or root on critical servers, mirroring insider threat or assumed compromise scenarios.

• Lateral Movement – Testing how easily an attacker could move across your network from one system or department to another (for example, from a student lab to finance systems).

• Maintaining Access – Assessing how attackers might install backdoors or persistence mechanisms to return to your environment later.

• Covering Tracks – Demonstrating how logs and monitoring could be evaded or manipulated, highlighting improvements for your blue team and security monitoring.

• Reporting – Delivering a clear, non-technical executive summary for leadership, detailed technical findings for IT and security teams, and prioritized remediation steps.

This approach supports traditional penetration testing as well as more advanced red team, blue team, or purple team exercises, depending on the maturity of your security program.

 

National Reach

 

Although we work extensively with colleges and universities in Santa Fe and New Mexico, OCD Tech also provides network penetration testing services nationwide, including in Boston (MA), New York City (NY), Washington DC, Philadelphia (PA), Dallas (TX), Los Angeles (CA), Chicago (IL), and Baltimore (MD).

 

Contact Our Santa Fe Network Penetration Testing Consultants

 

OCD Tech provides network penetration testing, security assessments, and cybersecurity consulting to colleges, universities, and educational organizations in Santa Fe and across New Mexico. If you would like to discuss how a penetration test can help protect your campus network, students, and research, please complete the form below and a team member will follow up with you shortly.