⬢ Built for Healthcare · CREST · HIPAA + Privacy Act
Penetration Testing for Healthcare & HealthTech Patient data, telehealth, connected devices — tested for HIPAA and the Privacy Act
Healthcare and HealthTech sit at the intersection of the most-targeted data class (patient health information) and the most fragmented attack surface (legacy clinical systems, modern HealthTech apps, connected devices, third-party integrations). Australian healthcare breaches have made national headlines in three of the past four years.
Sector-aware penetration testing
Built around the risks that actually matter in this sector — compliance evidence, business logic abuse, data exposure, and buyer assurance.
- ✓ CREST-Certified Testers
- ✓ Australian Jurisdiction
- ✓ Free 60-Day Retest
Engagement snapshot
Scope, controls and attack paths mapped upfront
A clean view of what will be tested, why it matters, and what evidence the report will produce.
Definition
What is Healthcare Penetration Testing?
Healthcare penetration testing is a manual security assessment focused on the failure modes specific to systems that handle patient health information (PHI): patient-record cross-access, telehealth session abuse, clinician portal authorisation flaws, connected-device API weakness, and Health Information Exchange integration vulnerability.
TL;DR
What is Healthcare Penetration Testing?
Healthcare penetration testing is a manual security assessment focused on the failure modes specific to systems that handle patient health information (PHI): patient-record cross-access, telehealth session abuse, clinician portal authorisation flaws, connected-device API weakness, and Health Information Exchange integration vulnerability.
Healthcare pentests differ from generic application pentests because the data class is uniquely sensitive (patient records cannot be ‘cancelled’ like a credit card), the compliance load combines US HIPAA Security Rule with AU Privacy Act APP 11, and the attack surface mixes modern HealthTech with legacy clinical systems that other industries replaced 15 years ago. Penva Security’s healthcare engagements produce evidence for both regulatory regimes in a single test cycle.
Healthcare Threat Model
How Healthcare Systems Actually Get Breached
Healthcare breach reports show distinct attack patterns shaped by the patient-data threat model and the legacy / modern system mix. We test for each explicitly.
Patient Record Cross-Access
The healthcare equivalent of cross-tenant SaaS breaches. Patient A’s record visible to Patient B through ID manipulation. Doctor A’s caseload exposed to Doctor B through scope-check failure. The highest-stakes finding on healthcare engagements.
Telehealth Session Abuse
Session-link prediction or enumeration, waiting-room bypass, recording-permission tampering, screen-share abuse, identity-verification weakness in patient join flow. Telehealth surfaces are newer than the rest of clinical infrastructure and frequently underspecified.
Clinician Portal Authorisation Flaws
Role-based access control where role checks happen on the client, scope-of-practice limits enforced only in the UI, prescribing-authority bypass, consultation-record access outside the assigned cohort. Sits at the heart of every clinical platform.
Patient-Facing App API Abuse
Insecure direct object references on appointment lookups, prescription histories, lab results. Authentication weaknesses that let one patient’s account access another’s data. OWASP API Top 10 directly applied to PHI.
Connected Device & IoT Integration
Insecure pairing protocols, hard-coded credentials in firmware-to-backend communication, weak certificate validation on device-to-cloud channels, abuse of device-provisioning APIs. Growing as connected health devices proliferate.
Health Information Exchange Weakness
FHIR API authorisation flaws, HL7 message tampering, SMART on FHIR OAuth misconfiguration, abuse of system-to-system trust relationships. The integration boundary is where modern healthcare architectures most often fail.
Engagement Scope
What a Typical Healthcare Engagement Covers
Healthcare scope balances the patient-facing app, clinician tooling, integration surface, and where applicable connected-device infrastructure.
01
Patient-Facing App / API
Patient portal or mobile app — authentication, MFA, session management, appointment / record / prescription access, OWASP API Top 10.
02
Clinician Portal
Provider-facing application — RBAC enforcement, scope-of-practice limits, caseload access, prescribing authority, audit-log integrity.
03
Telehealth Surface
Video session flow, waiting room, recording permissions, identity verification, link generation entropy, session-replay resistance.
04
FHIR / HL7 Integration
FHIR API authorisation, SMART on FHIR OAuth, HL7 message handling, system-to-system trust boundaries with HIE / hospital systems.
05
Connected Devices (if applicable)
Pairing protocols, device-to-cloud authentication, firmware-update channel, provisioning API. Scoped per-engagement.
06
Cloud Infrastructure
AWS / Azure / GCP configuration relevant to PHI handling — segmentation, IAM, exposed storage, BAA-compliant service usage.
Compliance Mix
Healthcare Compliance Evidence
Australian HealthTech typically needs Privacy Act APP 11 evidence and — if serving US covered entities — HIPAA Security Rule evidence. One engagement, both deliverables.
Priority
HIPAA Security Rule
164.308 administrative + 164.312 technical safeguards. Required for HealthTech vendors serving US covered entities as Business Associates under a BAA.
Read more →
Priority
Privacy Act APP 11
Australian Privacy Principle 11 — reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse and unauthorised access. Stricter under the Privacy Act Reform.
Read more →
Common
ISO 27001:2022
Annex A.8.8 / A.8.29 / A.5.23 — baseline for enterprise sales and procurement responses to hospital systems and HealthTech partners.
Read more →
Common
SOC 2
Trust Services CC7.1 + CC6.1 — required by US enterprise customers and US HealthTech buyers procuring AU partners.
Read more →
Where applicable
Essential Eight
ML2 — for HealthTech selling into AU Government, state health departments, or large enterprise hospital networks.
Read more →
Where applicable
GDPR Article 32
If you serve EU patients or EU clinicians as data subjects under GDPR.
Read more →
Engagement Flow
How a Penva Security Healthcare Engagement Runs
Typical 7–14 business days of active testing for a HealthTech engagement, with extra time when telehealth, connected devices, or HL7/FHIR integrations are in scope.
01
Scoping & Threat Modelling
Scoping call covers patient and clinician roles, integration surface (FHIR / HL7 / HIE), telehealth flows, connected devices, and any HIPAA BAA scope. Fixed quote within 24 hours.
02
AI-Accelerated Reconnaissance
Day 1. Full attack-surface mapping including HL7 / FHIR endpoints, OAuth flows, mobile app analysis, technology fingerprinting.
03
Manual Exploitation
Days 2–12. CREST-certified testers work through the healthcare threat model — cross-patient access, clinician role bypass, telehealth abuse, FHIR authorisation flaws, connected-device integration.
04
Reporting & Walkthrough
Days 13–14. Report structured with HIPAA Security Rule + Privacy Act APP 11 evidence sections, executive summary, technical findings, remediation, 1:1 walkthrough.
05
Free 60-Day Retest
Free retest validates closure for both regulatory regimes. Particularly important for HIPAA where BAA partners audit each other’s remediation evidence.
Proof points
Healthcare Engagements at Penva Security
Industry-specific scope, certifications and turnaround at a glance.
HIPAA
+ Privacy Act APP 11
FHIR/HL7
Integration tested
AU
Jurisdiction default
7–14d
Typical active testing
FAQ
Healthcare Pentest — Common Questions
Direct, industry-specific answers to the questions Healthcare buyers ask most often. Updated May 2026.
Does HIPAA apply to my Australian HealthTech?
Directly, no — HIPAA is US legislation governing US covered entities. Indirectly, often yes — if you serve any US healthcare organisation as a Business Associate (data processor) under a BAA, you must operationally comply with the HIPAA Security Rule even though your company is Australian. Most Australian HealthTech selling into the US market signs BAAs and needs HIPAA-aligned testing evidence.
What does Privacy Act APP 11 require for healthcare?
APP 11 requires entities holding personal information (which includes health information at the highest sensitivity tier) to take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure. The Privacy Act Reform tightens this for health information specifically — including expectations around penetration testing for entities processing significant volumes of health data. See our Privacy Act page.
Can one engagement produce both HIPAA and Privacy Act evidence?
Yes, and it’s the most common Penva Security healthcare engagement. The underlying technical testing is largely the same — what differs is the report structure and the supporting documentation. We produce a single technical engagement deliverable with two regulatory-aligned evidence sections, which avoids running separate tests for US and AU compliance cycles.
Do you test telehealth platforms specifically?
Yes. Telehealth testing covers session-link entropy, waiting-room bypass, recording-permission tampering, screen-share abuse, identity-verification weakness in the patient join flow, and the recording-storage / replay surface where applicable. Telehealth grew faster than its security tooling during 2020–2022 and is one of the higher-yield areas on healthcare engagements.
How do you handle testing of connected health devices?
Connected-device testing scope varies — we test the device-to-cloud API surface, pairing and provisioning flows, firmware-update channel, and certificate handling on the device side. Full firmware reverse engineering is a separate scope if required. Most HealthTech engagements include the API/cloud side; the firmware side is typically added when there’s a specific concern.
Can you test FHIR APIs and HL7 integrations?
Yes — FHIR API authorisation testing (especially SMART on FHIR OAuth), HL7 message handling, and integration-boundary testing with HIE / hospital systems. We test the system-to-system trust relationships explicitly, which is where modern healthcare architectures most often fail. This is increasingly common as HealthTech connects to public-sector clinical systems.
Do you handle patient data during testing?
We test against staging environments wherever possible, using synthetic patient data that mirrors live data shape and edge cases. Production testing is supported for non-destructive engagements with read-only API testing, where the scoping call covers what we will and won’t access. Sensitive findings stay in Australian jurisdiction — no offshoring.
How long does a healthcare engagement take?
7 to 14 business days of active testing for a typical HealthTech engagement (patient app + clinician portal + APIs + one integration boundary). Longer than generic SaaS because the threat model is wider — patient-data cross-access, clinician authorisation, telehealth, and integrations each need explicit attention. Add 2–3 days if connected devices or significant HL7 integration is in scope.
Next step
Ready for Healthcare-Specific Penetration Testing?
Book a free 30-minute scoping call. Fixed-price quote within 24 hours. Human-led + AI testing. Audit-ready reports. Free retest within 60 days.
Ready for Healthcare-Specific Penetration Testing?
Book a free 30-minute scoping call. Fixed-price quote within 24 hours. Human-led + AI testing. Audit-ready reports. Free retest within 60 days.