In a troubling but increasingly familiar scenario, Frederick Health Hospital (FHH) is now facing multiple lawsuits stemming from a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal and medical information of patients.
According to The Frederick News-Post (source article), several more legal actions were recently filed, with plaintiffs alleging that FHH failed to adequately protect their data and respond effectively to the breach.
The lawsuits come after the hospital disclosed in late 2023 that an unauthorized party had gained access to its systems, exposing a vast amount of protected health information (PHI). The breach has triggered not just public scrutiny but now a growing stack of legal complaints that highlight deeper questions about how organizations—particularly in healthcare—approach cybersecurity.
FHH’s situation is not unique. Across the country, hospitals and businesses alike are waking up to the harsh reality that traditional cybersecurity strategies—those based on detection and response—are no longer sufficient.
By the time threats are detected, it’s often too late. Data is exfiltrated, systems are compromised, and recovery costs soar. Worse still, brand reputation and customer trust—once lost—can be impossible to regain.
FHH’s breach fits this all-too-common pattern. Despite whatever monitoring or antivirus tools were in place, an attacker slipped through, moved laterally, and gained access to critical systems—putting thousands of patients at risk. The lawsuits are now putting FHH’s entire cybersecurity posture under the microscope.
The solution? Move from “Detect and Respond” to “Isolation and Containment.”
This approach is exactly what AppGuard delivers. Rather than playing catch-up with threats, AppGuard prevents malware and other malicious actions from executing in the first place. It does this by enforcing strict controls at the operating system level, stopping unauthorized processes before they can do harm—without relying on signatures, cloud lookups, or constant updates.
AppGuard has quietly protected some of the most targeted systems in government and industry for over a decade. Now, it’s commercially available, offering small and mid-sized businesses the same level of proven protection used in national security circles.
Where legacy endpoint protection fails—overwhelmed by zero-days, ransomware-as-a-service, and polymorphic malware—AppGuard simply prevents the process from launching. No breach. No damage. No lawsuits.
Healthcare organizations like FHH are especially vulnerable. Patient data is highly valuable on the dark web, and hospitals often lack the resources or staff to defend against sophisticated cyberattacks. In fact, the average healthcare breach costs $10.93 million per incident, according to IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
Given those stakes, “business as usual” just won’t cut it. Every business that handles sensitive information—whether health records, financial data, or proprietary information—needs to rethink its approach to endpoint security.
FHH’s expanding legal trouble is a cautionary tale for every organization still relying on reactive cybersecurity strategies. The cost of inaction is now measured not just in downtime and data loss—but in litigation, lost trust, and potential business failure.
At CHIPS, we help businesses prevent these disasters before they start. AppGuard isn’t just another tool in your security stack—it’s a whole new way to think about endpoint protection.
Let’s have a conversation about how AppGuard’s Isolation and Containment technology can help you stop ransomware, zero-days, and fileless attacks before they begin—no alerts, no damage, no headlines.
📞 Contact CHIPS today to learn how AppGuard can protect your business—before it’s too late.
Let’s leave “Detect and Respond” in the past and move forward with confidence.
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