Security in Healthcare App Development
Healthcare apps are increasingly allowing patients to connect with practitioners in a much more convenient manner. This requires a certain level of security that can only be achieved by building it into the app from the beginning.
Data breaches are terrible for patient privacy and can be extremely costly for a practice or software company. Understanding what types of threats to account for in telehealth app development can mitigate these risks.
HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance is a must for healthcare app development, especially since it defines the standards and requirements for data collection and transmission. This act ensures the privacy of personal health information (PHI) and prevents unauthorized disclosure. It also imposes severe fines on any organization that violates the standard.
The best way to make a mobile healthcare application HIPAA compliant is by implementing several security features. These include unique user identification and encryption. This makes it impossible for cybercriminals to decipher the data, which ensures that PHI is secure.
It is also a good idea to use the latest backup and restore tools. Lastly, it is necessary to avoid sending PHI through emails or any other type of communication that is not encrypted.
Multi-Factor Authentication
With apps that use sensitive data, ensuring users’ privacy is paramount. Passwords and credentials are essential to user authentication, but healthcare app developers must also implement other security measures like multi-
factor authentication (MFA). This is the process of requiring multiple proofs of identity before allowing access to a platform, such as a username and password or a time-based one-time passcode on a smartphone.
This type of verification allows healthcare apps to protect patient data from hackers who may gain unauthorized access to the system if a single factor alone is used. MFA can include things like facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, or text message confirmations to log in to a personal account.
Auth0’s MFA also features role-based access control, which limits the information that can be accessed by an individual based on their specific job. This feature is especially relevant for healthcare apps, as it helps to ensure that only the right people are accessing private and confidential information.
Encryption
Healthcare mobile apps often contain sensitive personal information, including medical records, insurance information, and patient data. This is why app developers need to ensure that these applications are protected with strong authentication, encryption, and vulnerability scanning.
User authentication refers to the use of credentials, passwords, tokens, and other forms of personal identification to verify users. In healthcare, this is a critical step in the security process because it protects against malware attacks and phishing scams. It also helps limit and determine access boundaries for sensitive information.
It is important for developers to research and understand the regulatory requirements that apply to a healthcare app. This will help them ensure that their apps are secure and comply with a variety of different regulations, such
as HIPAA. This is vital to maintain the trust of patients and medical professionals. Additionally, it is a good idea to
use multiple methods of authentication, such as multi-factor authentication, to keep data safe from hackers and other malicious actors.
Security Testing
In addition to being able to access their bank accounts, favorite stores, and nearby restaurants via mobile apps,
smartphone users are also increasingly gaining access to their medical data via consumer healthcare applications.
However, these mHealth apps are a major risk for cyberattacks and can expose personal information to hackers who want to profit from the data they access.
The sensitivity of data stored in healthcare applications means that thorough software security testing is a must for these apps. This ensures that the data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands — criminals in the identity theft business, cyber-attackers who could use it to launch ransomware attacks, or anyone else seeking to exploit it.
Using a comprehensive security testing solution that offers user behavior testing, application penetration testing, session management testing, business logic testing and OWASP tests for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting can help improve the overall security of healthcare applications. This allows developers and security teams to identify vulnerabilities and take steps to remediate them before the release of an app.
