Do you know the importance of security testing in healthcare applications? We made this article to let you know everything. Just continue reading.
Imagine the scenario of a critical patient or a senior patient trying to access a certain feature that requires login access and all of sudden they get a pop-up saying ‘Your account has been compromised, please get in touch with our security expert or change your password or any similar suggestion. This may seem to be a regular problem that can be easily tackled while relaxing but think about it from the perspective of a healthcare professional or a patient who needs immediate attention.
Security breaches in the healthcare industry can be lethal and devastating, especially when it comes to the security of modern-day healthcare applications that store critical patients’ data.
Also, with the exponential rise in the graph of medical identity theft in recent years has made, security testing in healthcare apps, a critically important aspect. In fact, PHI (protected health information) is considered almost equivalent to finance when it comes to criticality and thus has evolved as information of much higher value, than expected, to intruders.
There are some companies offering SNGPC software to keep your XML submissions to ANVISA error-free.
Let’s continue with Security Testing In Healthcare Applications
Measures to protect your healthcare app
A comprehensive security testing process initiates the architectural review process of the app and provides a detailed set of guidelines to implement features keeping security and safety in mind. The security tester observes the existing security features and reconsiders the framework for audit logging, authentication, data security, authorization, and:
- Data Validation Testing
- Configuration Management Testing
- Testing for OWASP top ten vulnerabilities such as XSS, SQL Injection
- Session Management Testing
- Business Logic Testing
- Denial of Service Testing
- Web Services Testing
- Ajax Testing
Assuring the best security practices in the healthcare domain
It is generally believed that a significant number of application security defects and issues can be removed while testing. These vulnerabilities if not fixed during the testing phase can transform into a more complex threat during the release. This can also greatly impact the security budget. To avoid this the organizations need to incorporate a security risk management program that is aligned with pre-decided objectives such as:
Validating data storage
The data that needs to be transferred and stored needs to be equally protected. Robust security testing in healthcare app services must be ensured to stay updated with the latest data storage safety tools and techniques. Overall it also helps in analyzing the current situation and existing data management policies.
Identity and access management
Loopholes often act as a security flaw by providing an entrance to intruders, thus making vulnerable access points. Guiding the security team to strengthen identity detection and validation significantly reduces the chances of a beach.
Producing better quality software.
The safer is your software, the better it’s quality. If the security teams can track and report the bugs during the testing phase, it shoots up the quality of your software and also reduces the overall cost. This makes it a win-win situation with low cost, low maintenance, and high quality.
Use penetration testing services with HIPAA compliance
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 compliance outlines the important safety precautions that software developers need to follow while they are working on healthcare applications. The process came into existence to protect and formulate the flow of ePHI and protect it from theft.
Penetration Testing with HIPAA
Effective Penetration Testing Services or pen-testing methods can churn out the real-world methods that are used by black hat hackers for intrusions. Experience or outsourced penetration testing companies can be a real help in minimizing such threat scenarios. They effectively detect the vulnerabilities that can be compromised such as physical premises, networks, and IT assets.
External Scanning
This type of scanning is done outside the parent network and identifies the generic loopholes in the network architecture.
Internal Scanning
Done within the parent network. The scanning is executed behind the internal network firewall and other security features. This scanning method searches for vulnerabilities on the internal host which can be exploited by a pivot attack.
Footnote:
Thus to ensure complete security for your healthcare app, it is advisable to opt-in for independent software testing companies that already follow HIPAA compliance. Going otherwise might burn a hole in your pocket as initiating from scratch is quite an expensive process. Hence this is quite an obvious Future of Technology in Healthcare.
Hope you like the article security testing in healthcare applications. Share it with your colleagues.
