$7.42M
average cost of a healthcare data breach in 2025 — the highest of any industry
IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025
Why pentesting is a vital issue in healthcare
Ransomware that locks a hospital or clinic's information system isn't just a financial loss: it can delay procedures, block access to patient records, or take imaging equipment offline. Healthcare also records the highest average data breach cost of any sector, reflecting the sensitivity and value of medical data.
Hospital information systems often combine recent applications with older systems that are rarely updated, considered critical and hard to take offline for maintenance. This mix creates blind spots that a regular audit can map.
Concrete risks in care environments
Connected medical devices (imaging, monitoring, infusion pumps) sometimes sit on the same network as administrative systems without sufficient segmentation — a compromised admin workstation can become a pivot point toward critical equipment. Remote access left open for external biomedical maintenance vendors is another frequently underrated entry point.
Appointment booking portals and patient-facing interfaces exposed on the internet also widen the attack surface, with personal and medical data at stake in the event of a breach.
What a penetration test means in a hospital setting
A pentest in this context follows a cautious methodology: scope is defined upfront to exclude any action that could disrupt vital equipment or live care systems, and active testing is scheduled outside critical windows. Connected medical devices generally undergo a passive assessment of network segmentation rather than direct exploitation, unless explicitly authorized and closely scoped.
Coordination with internal biomedical and IT teams is essential to distinguish what can be actively tested from what should remain under observation, and to prioritize fixes based on a healthcare organization's real resource constraints.
Go further
See the full presentation of Audit & Pentest or all our solutions for Cybersecurity for Healthcare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Scope is defined upfront to exclude any risky action on vital equipment, and tests are scheduled outside critical care windows. The goal is to find flaws without ever endangering continuity of care.