Healthcare breaches don’t just steal data; they erode trust, disrupt care, and cost millions. The 2015 Anthem data breach compromised 78.8 million records. Since then, attacks have only grown in frequency and sophistication, pushing the average healthcare breach cost to .1 million in 2022 (IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach).
For years, healthcare security has focused on perimeter defenses, yet breaches keep escalating. The Change Healthcare breach, the largest PHI exposure ever, compromised 100 million Americans’ Social Security numbers, medical records, and financial data, costing .4 billion, thanks to an MFA issue on the Citrix portal.
APIs are the backbone of healthcare interoperability, connecting EHRs, insurers, and medical devices, as well as the weakest link, often rushed into production with minimal security testing. Broken authentication, poor access controls, and logic flaws make them prime targets to access PHI, shut down patient care, or manipulate medical devices.
Thus, this blog will discuss API security testing for healthcare, the current landscape, the critical role of API security, and how to implement effective testing measures to protect patient data and ensure compliance.
What is API Security Testing in Healthcare?
Security testing for healthcare APIs is the process of testing Application Programming Interfaces for security vulnerabilities to pinpoint weak spots that would allow an attacker to either gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or misuse it.
The types of healthcare APIs that need security testing are:
- EHR APIs: APIs like Electronic Health Records (EHR) enable interoperability by allowing different systems and applications to communicate and exchange data securely and efficiently. They are vital for care coordination & patient outcomes.
- APIs for Medical Devices: These facilitate connecting medical devices and other systems. They track a patient’s health and deliver real-time information to physicians.
- Insurance and Billing APIs manage all financial transactions and insurance claims. They ensure that payments are processed correctly and in a timely manner.
Why Astra is the best in API Pentesting?
- We’re the only company that combines artificial intelligence & manual pentest to create a one-of-a-kind pentest platform.
- Runs 120+ test cases based on industrial standards.
- Integrates with your CI/CD tools to help you establish DevSecOps.
- A dynamic vulnerability management dashboard to manage, monitor, and assess APIs your web app consumes.
- Conduct 2 rescans in 60 days to verify patches.
- Award publicly verifiable pentest certificates which you can share with your users.
- Helps you stay compliant with SOC2, ISO27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, etc.
- Trusted by the brands you trust like Agora, Spicejet, Muthoot, Dream11, etc.
Why Healthcare API Security Testing is Critical
Modern healthcare systems rely heavily on APIs, which, if not properly secured, can pose security risks. This can halt operations, resulting in financial costs and damaging patient trust.
Securing Patient Information
Healthcare APIs typically handle sensitive information and data, such as medical histories and detailed personal information. This information is valuable and can be misused, so attackers target it.
Through testing with API security companies, organizations can identify weaknesses (and fix them), ensuring only authorized people and systems can access private data, securing transfers with interconnected healthcare systems, to help prevent data abuse.
Meeting Rules and Guidelines
Various countries implement laws requiring strict data protection protocols, such as the USA’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Organizations that do not comply with these laws can face hefty penalties and legal fees, damaging their reputations.
Regular testing helps to ensure that each API meets these requirements. It looks for unauthorized access, weak encryption, and other healthcare API vulnerabilities that might violate compliance rules.
Networking and Collaboration for Patient Safety
Some APIs connect to medical devices; others connect to external vendors to handle billing or third-party services. If attackers compromise these links, they may be able to disrupt patient service, or, in extreme cases, patient safety could be at risk.
API security frameworks for healthcare, including pentests, check these links for vulnerabilities and ensure that data-sharing arrangements with partners are secure and meet industry security standards.
Benefits of API Security Testing for Healthcare
When performed thoroughly and with a proper security vendor, healthcare API security testing offers various benefits. Let’s discuss a few of them.
Early Problem Detection
In healthcare, security testing uses data handling measures, encryption methods, and API access control to help organizations pinpoint hidden gaps in their APIs before attackers can find them. It also evaluates how new code updates or integrations may affect existing security features.
Moreover, spotting and addressing issues quickly helps you prevent widespread data leaks and disruptions, i.e., reduce incident response costs and preserve relationships with patients, vendors, and other stakeholders who rely on dependable services.
Consistent Regulatory Alignment
Healthcare organizations must follow data protection and privacy rules, such as HIPAA, GDPR, or local regulations. Ongoing security tests confirm that APIs meet these guidelines and maintain strong data safeguards by assessing whether patient details are secure, identity verification steps are decisive, and audit logs record necessary events.
Consistently aligning with requirements, organizations avoid financial penalties and public scrutiny, all while showing their commitment to data protection and international standards oriented operations.
Building Patient Confidence
Public breaches erode people’s trust in healthcare providers. API security testing for healthcare can help providers show patients that data protection is a priority, helping them feel more comfortable sharing sensitive health details through online platforms.
In a sector where personal data is key to services, open communication about security testing proves that patient well-being and privacy are core objectives.
Minimizing the Risk of Breaches
Attackers often investigate APIs for easy entry points, targeting weak session tokens or overlooked endpoints by performing ongoing security reviews.
Such tests typically involve simulating attacks and evaluating how systems respond under pressure. The findings highlight specific API security threats in healthcare that could lead to widespread damage if left unaddressed.
Ensuring Device Safety
Many diagnostic and monitoring tools in modern healthcare rely on APIs to share updates and alerts. If the data flow is compromised, it can lead to misreadings or treatment delays. Security tests assess device connections to confirm that each data transfer step is adequately secured.
This includes encryption choices, data validation processes, and error-handling routines. Stronger protections mean fewer chances for external manipulation so your staff can focus on patient well-being instead of worrying about potential break-ins or tampering.
Common API Security Challenges in Healthcare
The healthcare industry faces many API-related challenges that impact patient care, data security, and day-to-day functionality. Stemming from assimilating legacy assets into modern ecosystems, managing vast amounts of PII, and balancing multiple third-party vendors, here are five common problems and API Security best practices for healthcare to overcome them.
Legacy System Integration
Many healthcare providers rely on outdated software or hardware that continues to perform essential functions but may lack contemporary security measures. With legacy infrastructure that usually lags behind today’s standards, opening these systems to APIs only heightens the exposure to data breaches.
To prevent this, first, document each older system and how data passes back and forth between it and other software. Next, a security plan with firewalls, access controls, and encryption for any data transfers must be designed. Working with teams responsible for supporting the legacy technology can also identify areas that require an upgrade.
Complex Authorization Workflows
Patients, doctors, and other staff often require different levels of access. This can lead to multi-step identity verifications that must be airtight to protect personal information. When poorly designed, these healthcare API authentication methods can drag out procedures and lead staff to seek fast workarounds, creating otherwise avoidable risks.
Centralized identity management tools that enforce the PoLP ensure users have only the access they need, enhancing security and compliance while using multi-factor approaches in place of relying on tokens or biometrics can help with additional protection.
Multiple Vendor Ecosystems
Healthcare providers often depend on a multitude of external suppliers for niche services. Each provider brings new workflows, software updates, and data-handling approaches giving attackers more opportunities to exploit fragile controls if they discover a crack in the chain.
To prevent this, force every partner to adhere to strict security policies if given access to sensitive information. See how third parties manage patient data and their policy concerning high-risk events. Maintain updated records of outside vendors’ approval to access your data and conduct regular audits or penetration tests to protect against unknowns.
Real-Time Data Requirements
Healthcare tasks like remote monitoring or surgery assistance require real-time data flow. That can lead to design decisions prioritizing speed over protection. Rapid data transmission without encryption can allow intruders to intercept communications or disrupt the connection if not appropriately managed.
To prevent this, secure channels for real-time data transfers, such as protocols like TLS/DTLS or VPN tunnels, should be used to ensure data is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Information should be cached only as long as necessary and responsibly to minimize unprotected time. Stress testing should be conducted to assess system behavior under load, and network or server resources should be scaled based on the results.
Mobile Healthcare Apps
Many patients and clinicians use phone or tablet apps to check test results or medication schedules. These applications tend to interface with backend APIs, and if they are not incorporated well, sensitive records could be endangered while in transit or stored on devices.
Ensure a secure development process that includes code reviews, scanning for known vulnerabilities, and testing in real operating environments. Update software regularly to address new CVEs and establish guidelines for password creation, session expirations, and error handling.
Astra’s API Security Testing for Healthcare
As a leading provider of penetration testing as a service (PTaaS) and continuous threat exposure management (CTEM), Astra delivers cutting-edge security solutions tailored to healthcare organizations.
Our API security solution combines automated intelligence with deep manual expertise to uncover known and emerging CVEs in medical applications, patient data systems, and connected healthcare devices, ensuring compliance with HIPAA, HITRUST, GDPR, and other regulatory standards.
With 13,000+ automated test cases, AI-powered manual pentests, and real-time reporting, Astra helps healthcare organizations shift left by integrating security into their development lifecycle. Our zero false positives, seamless EHR and cloud integrations, and customizable compliance reports make securing sensitive patient data effective and hassle-free.
HIPAA Compliance Verification
Astra Security consists of checks mainly aimed at keeping sensitive patient details private and in control, as many healthcare entities in the United States must adhere to HIPAA compliance policies. This means examining how data is encrypted, how systems log access events, and how identity is verified at each stage of data exchange.
Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)
Astra Security provides Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), which helps you find new or overlooked entry points through continuous, automated scans. These scans include an API’s technical aspects and everyday use cases.
Changes to the API environment are quickly evaluated with real-time updates, reducing the window of opportunity for potential data exposure. The system generates clear reports detailing shortfalls so teams can begin to address issues immediately.
Manual Penetration Testing
While automated scans are helpful, human analysts are also central in seeking out less apparent issues. Astra Security’s manual tests replicate real-world hacking strategies to see if existing safeguards suffice when faced with a valid attempt to breach.
These specialists simulate various scenarios to pinpoint chain attacks and CVEs, such as misconfigured user privileges or hijacking user sessions, access control loopholes, payment escalation risks to prevent breaches, etc. Moreover, expert support, two free rescans, and a CXO-friendly dashboard smoothens remediation.
Astra Pentest is built by the team of experts that helped secure Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, and Buffer
Final Thoughts
API Security for healthcare is not just about compliance. It is about trust, patient safety, and the long-term survival of your business where regulators set the baseline, but doing the bare minimum invites billion-dollar breaches. The real question is whether your APIs can withstand the next inevitable attack.
One-time audits and generic security scans are failing APIs. Continuous testing, runtime protection, and proactive threat modeling must be standard practice, not afterthoughts. If your security strategy is not evolving as fast as your attack surface, you are already behind.
The industry must transition from reactive security to a relentless, proactive approach with experts like Astra Security for accurate assessments, continuous protection, and a strategy that keeps your APIs (and your patients!) safe.
FAQs
How do you ensure API security?
Ensuring API security requires robust authentication, strict access controls, continuous testing, and runtime protection. Implement rate limiting, encryption, and threat monitoring. Shift-left security in development, conduct regular audits, and use zero-trust principles to prevent breaches and protect sensitive data.
What is API security testing?
API security testing identifies vulnerabilities in application programming interfaces to prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, and abuse, assessing authentication, authorization, data validation, and business logic flaws using techniques like penetration testing, fuzzing, and runtime analysis to ensure robust protection.
