List of UK healthcare companies that are not secure by default

By Stephen Kellett
15 December, 2017

This is one of several posts of the topic of security of websites. Inspired by my initial post on the security of UK banks.

The reason for splitting this data into multiple posts is to make it more manageable. So that data on one institution is not mixed with data on another type of institution.

The following key is used for the secure status:

Yes The site is secure, loaded via https
Dual The site can be loaded via http, or via https.
Invalid The site loads via https, but the security certificate is invalid and thus the site is insecure.
Partial The site loads via https, but loads some parts of the page without https. The site is insecure.
No The site is loaded via http, not via https.
Fixed The site is loaded via https, but at the time of first writing it was loaded via http.
?? We could not find a website to evaluate.

We tested 24 healthcare companies. We found 2 healthcare companies that did not have a secure home page (not https or did have https with an invalid security certificate). That is 8% of UK healthcare companies have security vulnerabilities.

Healthcare company Secure Home Page
Aviva Healthcare Yes https://www.aviva.co.uk/
AXA PPP Yes https://www.axappphealthcare.co.uk/
Benenden Healthcare Society Yes https://www.benenden.co.uk/
Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund Yes https://www.bhsf.co.uk/
Bupa Yes https://www.bupa.co.uk/
CS Healthcare Yes https://www.cshealthcare.co.uk/
Engage Mutual Assurance Yes https://www.onefamily.com/
Exeter Family Friendly Yes https://www.the-exeter.com/
General & Medical Healthcare Yes https://www.generalandmedical.com/
Health-on-Line Yes https://www.health-on-line.co.uk/
Healthshield Yes https://www.healthshield.co.uk/
HSF Yes https://www.hsf.co.uk
Insurety No http://www.april-uk.com
Medicash Yes https://www.medicash.org
National Friendly Yes https://nationalfriendly.co.uk/
Saga Dual http://www.saga.co.uk
Secure Health Yes https://www.securehealth.co.uk/
Sovereign Health Yes https://www.sovereignhealthcare.co.uk/
Simply Health Yes https://www.simplyhealth.co.uk/
Vitality Yes https://www.vitality.co.uk/
Westfield Yes https://www.westfieldhealth.com/
WHA Yes https://www.whahealthcare.co.uk/
WHCA Yes https://www.orchardhealthcare.co.uk/
WPA Yes https://www.wpa.org.uk/

Commentary

Saga’s website is avialable via http and via https. This should be https only.

Disclaimer

I shouldn’t need to point this out, but i will, all the same, just to be clear.

The data provided on this page should taken at face value. If you’re not sure about something, please verify it yourself. Nothing reported here should be regarded as a criticism or an endorsement or recommendation of an organisations security effectiveness. I am simply passing comment on whether the home page (whatever that may be) is provided as https on not. Other security concerns are a separate matter.

If your organisation is listed here and is not marked as secure, your best course of action is to fix that, not to complain that someone is reporting a fact anyone with a web browser can discover. The security status of your home page is public information, albeit information that many people don’t understand.

Guest posts

No, we’re not interested in having a guest post about finance related topics. These articles are about security, not finance.

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