Pen testing · Digital health & life sciences
Penetration Testing for Virtual Care & Telehealth Platforms
Penetration testing for a virtual care platform has to reach past the standard web app and into the video call itself, the patient mobile app and the EMR connections carrying prescriptions and lab results. Hospital procurement teams usually ask for recent third-party results by name, and a generic web-only scope will not satisfy a reviewer who knows what the platform actually runs. We scope the test around the systems a telehealth reviewer expects to see covered.
Reviewed by the Privacy Horizon team · Last reviewed
What you're protecting
What the test scope has to include
A telehealth platform's real attack surface extends well past its main website.
The video/WebRTC layer
Session establishment, media handling and any recording function in the video stack, whether built on Twilio, Vonage or Zoom for Healthcare, since a flaw here reaches a live clinical encounter, not just stored data.
The patient mobile app
Authentication, local data storage and API calls the app makes need testing on both major mobile platforms, not just the web equivalent.
Identity-verification and onboarding flows
The intake process that collects government ID and selfies is a high-value target and needs specific attention to how that data is transmitted and stored.
EMR and network-integration endpoints
Connections into PrescribeIT, OTNhub, eConsult or OLIS extend the attack surface into systems shared with hospitals and pharmacies, where a weak endpoint on the platform's side becomes everyone's problem.
The clinician-facing scheduling and charting interface
The side of the platform contracted clinicians use to view records and write notes carries a different risk profile than the patient-facing app and needs its own test coverage.
Booking and marketing pages
Public-facing intake and booking pages sometimes carry third-party marketing tags that create data-exposure risk alongside the more traditional vulnerabilities a pen test looks for.
Regulatory map
Why this test scope, specifically, satisfies hospital and Ontario Health reviewers
Procurement and verification standards ask for evidence tied to the actual clinical delivery system, not a general security certificate.
Ontario Health's TRA and scenario-testing expectations
The Virtual Visits Verification Standard expects a TRA summary or SOC 2 Type 2 report as evidence and includes risk-based scenario testing after attestation, both of which a properly scoped pen test feeds directly.
HINP TRA duties under O. Reg. 329/04
A platform acting as a health information network provider carries a prescribed duty to conduct a threat and risk assessment, which a penetration test's findings directly support.
HIPAA's Security Rule for US-facing systems
Once US patient data is in scope, a documented risk analysis is a required safeguard, and penetration test results are standard supporting evidence for it.
What goes wrong
What a well-scoped test actually finds in this environment
The findings that matter most here map to how a telehealth session and its supporting systems actually work.
Session-hijacking or media-stream weaknesses in the video layer
Flaws in how a video session is authenticated or how media streams are protected can expose a live clinical encounter to an unauthorized party.
Weak authentication on the patient mobile app
Missing or bypassable multi-factor authentication on a consumer health app mirrors the exact gap the OPC's 23andMe investigation flagged, the kind of finding a pen test surfaces before an attacker does.
Insufficient access controls at EMR integration points
A poorly restricted API connecting the platform to a pharmacy fax gateway or a lab feed can let one user reach another patient's prescriptions or results.
Exposed identity-verification data
Government ID images and selfies stored or transmitted without adequate protection are a specific target this test scope is built to catch, given how sensitive that data is on its own.
Our pen testing for virtual care & telehealth platforms
What our penetration test covers for a virtual care platform
The engagement is built around the components a telehealth platform actually runs, not a generic checklist.
Web application and patient portal testing
Standard application-layer testing against the booking, intake and patient-facing web portal, including authentication and session management.
Video/WebRTC layer assessment
Targeted testing of the video call architecture and any recording function, scoped to how the specific vendor's SDK is implemented in the product.
Mobile app testing
Assessment of the patient-facing mobile app on the platforms it actually ships on, covering authentication, local storage and API communication.
EMR and integration endpoint testing
Review of the endpoints connecting to PrescribeIT, OTNhub, eConsult or a similar network, focused on access control and data exposure.
Findings report mapped to procurement language
A report written to be handed directly to a hospital procurement team or an Ontario Health reviewer, with findings and remediation status presented in the terms they ask for.
How the engagement runs
How the engagement runs
Sized to produce a report a hospital or insurer will actually accept as recent third-party evidence.
Step 1
Scope the environment
We map the video stack, mobile app, EMR integrations and patient-facing systems with your team to agree the exact scope, including any components a specific buyer has asked about.
Step 2
Run the test
Testing covers the agreed components, exploring how systems respond under simulated attack rather than only scanning for known vulnerabilities.
Step 3
Deliver findings and remediation guidance
Results are documented in a report that ranks issues by severity and gives your team practical direction for closing them.
Step 4
Support remediation and retest
We remain available as fixes go in and can retest specific findings so the final report reflects the platform's actual current state.
What it costs
What shapes penetration testing cost for a telehealth platform
Cost depends on how many components are in scope, video/WebRTC testing, the mobile app, EMR integration endpoints, and how many of those exist. A platform with a single hospital integration and a web-only patient portal needs a smaller scope than one running native apps on two mobile platforms and several EMR connections at once.
Timing usually follows a specific deadline: an Ontario Health verification application, a hospital procurement window, or an annual renewal a customer contract requires. We scope the exact engagement after reviewing your architecture and the evidence a specific buyer or standard is asking for, and quote from there.
Virtual Care & Telehealth Platforms: Pen testing questions, answered
Yes, both belong in scope for a telehealth platform. The video/WebRTC layer carries the live clinical encounter itself, and the mobile app is usually the primary way patients access the service, so leaving either out of a test leaves the platform's actual highest-risk components unexamined.
A scope that covers the systems the hospital cares about: the patient-facing application, any component that will connect to the hospital's own network or EMR, and the video layer if visits will be conducted through it. A generic web-only test rarely satisfies a reviewer who has specifically asked about integration points.
Annually at minimum, and again after a significant change such as a new EMR integration, a video vendor switch, or expansion into a new hospital or province, since each of those changes the attack surface a prior test did not cover.
Often yes, if the scope is built broadly enough to cover both from the start. Ontario Health's verification standard and a hospital's own security review tend to ask about the same categories of system, so a single well-scoped test with a clear report can support both requests rather than requiring separate engagements.
Usually not directly, since the EMR vendor's own environment is typically out of scope unless you have specific authorization to test it. What matters is testing the endpoints and integration points on your platform's side that connect to it, since that is where your responsibility and your risk actually sit.
We prioritize the finding immediately and work with your team on remediation, and can provide interim guidance for how to represent the issue and the remediation timeline honestly to the procurement team, since an unaddressed critical finding is a bigger risk to the deal than a delayed report.
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