Your Patient Portal Just Failed Its Security Rule Audit
If you're a healthcare CTO holding a 60-day remediation notice, you need penetration testing that maps to 45 CFR § 164.312 controls -- not generic security theater.
We test your healthcare applications against every technical safeguard in the HIPAA Security Rule -- then fix what we find.
HIPAA penetration testing is a controlled, authorized attack simulation against systems that store, process, or transmit electronic protected health information (ePHI). It maps directly to the technical safeguard requirements in 45 CFR § 164.312 -- access controls, audit controls, integrity controls, authentication, and transmission security. The goal? Find exploitable vulnerabilities before an attacker or an OCR auditor does.
Your Current Site May Be a Liability
Common gaps we find in nearly every audit.
What Your Website Could Look Like
Custom-designed for your industry. No templates. No stock photos.
How We Build This Right
Every safeguard, built in from Day 1.
Access Control Testing -- §164.312(a)
We attempt to bypass unique user identification, emergency access procedures, automatic logoff, and encryption/decryption mechanisms. Every required and addressable implementation specification gets tested with real exploit techniques -- not theoretical ones.
Audit Control Validation -- §164.312(b)
We verify that your audit logs actually captured our attack activity, accurately and completely. If we can modify, delete, or evade audit trails, you've got a compliance gap that'll hurt when it matters most.
Integrity Control Testing -- §164.312(c)(1)
We go after ePHI integrity directly -- targeting database records, API responses, and file storage to see whether data can be altered without detection. Integrity mechanisms have to prove tamper-evidence when someone's actively trying to break them.
Person or Entity Authentication -- §164.312(d)
We attack authentication across the board: password policies, MFA implementations, session management, API key handling. Credential stuffing, brute force, token forgery -- all in scope.
Transmission Security -- §164.312(e)(1)
We pick apart TLS configurations, certificate pinning, cipher suite strength, and HSTS enforcement across every ePHI transmission path. Internal traffic between services gets tested too, not just what's exposed at the public edge.
Remediation Verification & Reporting
Every finding includes a CVSS score, the specific §164.312 provision it violates, step-by-step reproduction instructions, and a fix. We retest all critical and high findings after remediation at no extra charge.
What We Build
Purpose-built features for your industry.
OWASP Top 10 + HIPAA Mapping
Every vulnerability gets mapped to both OWASP categories and the specific 45 CFR § 164.312 implementation specification it violates -- so your documentation holds up to scrutiny.
Authenticated & Unauthenticated Testing
We test as four different personas: an external attacker, a low-privilege patient user, a clinical staff member, and an admin. RBAC gets validated at every tier, not just the top.
API & EHR Integration Testing
FHIR endpoints, HL7 interfaces, and third-party BA integrations get tested for injection, broken authentication, and excessive data exposure. These are common weak points that often go untouched.
Cloud Infrastructure Review
AWS, Azure, or GCP environments get assessed for S3 bucket exposure, IAM misconfigurations, and network segmentation failures around ePHI workloads.
Social Engineering Add-On
We also offer optional phishing and pretexting campaigns targeting staff with ePHI access. Technical safeguards only go so far -- the human layer needs testing too.
OCR-Ready Deliverables
Final reports are structured to directly support your HIPAA risk analysis documentation and show due diligence to OCR investigators. This isn't a generic PDF you'll struggle to explain.
Built on a Modern, Secure Stack
Our Development Process
From discovery to launch. Quality at every step.
Scoping & Rules of Engagement
Week 1We start by identifying every system that touches ePHI, defining testing boundaries, signing a BAA, and setting up communication protocols for critical findings. No surprises mid-engagement.
Reconnaissance & Threat Modeling
Week 1-2Then we map your attack surface the way an adversary would -- OSINT, DNS enumeration, technology fingerprinting, and an architecture review against each §164.312 control.
Active Exploitation
Week 2-3From there, it's manual and tool-assisted testing across all in-scope targets. We chain vulnerabilities together the way a real attacker would. We're not running a scanner and handing you the output.
Reporting & Risk Prioritization
Week 3-4You get a detailed technical report with an executive summary, §164.312 compliance mapping, CVSS-scored findings, proof-of-concept evidence, and prioritized remediation guidance.
Remediation Verification
Week 5-6After your team addresses the critical and high findings, we retest to confirm they're actually fixed -- then issue an updated attestation letter.
Ready to discuss your your patient portal just failed its security rule audit project?
Get a free quoteFrequently Asked Questions
Explore related industries
200+ employee company? Complex multi-tenant, auction, or multi-location requirement? We have a dedicated enterprise capability track.
Get Your HIPAA Pentest Scoped
We'll review your ePHI footprint and deliver a fixed-fee quote within 24 hours.
Let's build
something together.
Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.