Vulnerabilities in medical apps

The corona pandemic has further advanced the development of digital healthcare applications. But what about security? A study shows that 71 percent of the health apps tested had at least one serious weakness.

Looking at the different mHealth app categories, apps for telemedicine and patient engagement had the largest share with at least one serious vulnerability (80.3 percent). This was followed by health commerce apps (80 percent) and apps for medical devices (45.5 percent). Surprisingly, COVID tracking apps had the lowest percentage with a serious vulnerability (38.5 percent). However, 85 percent of tracking apps disclose data, the study found.

The study also found that Android apps have far more problems than iOS apps. 28 percent of iOS-based apps have weaknesses in encryption, while 34 percent of Android-based apps have weaknesses.