Patients of premier UES plastic surgeon allegedly had hacked nude images posted online

pDozens of patients of a premier Manhattan plastic surgeon had their hacked nude images and social security numbers posted online and the doctor failed to notify both his clients and the authorities according to a class action lawsuit ppDr Richard Swifts office located on the monied Upper East Side was hacked in an alleged malware attack last year with a Russianhosted website featuring sensitive information of at least 22 patients the suit claims ppLinda Q was one of the clients alleging that images of her breasts as part of a consultation were hacked and published online and she only found out when the hackers reached out to her directly ppLinda who first contacted Swifts office in 2023 to remove breast implants told The Post that the experience has been traumatizing and humiliating ppHe just didnt want to take any accountability or acknowledge it or even reassure us Thats the bare minimum that we were looking for she said But he didntppThe lawsuit blames Swifts inadequately protected computer systems for the hack and alleges that the surgeon failed to adhere to his statutory duty to alert his patients that his firm suffered from a data breachppThe doc also ignored repeated requests for information from Linda court papers claimppIn addition attorney Daniel S Szalkiewicz alleged that Swift never informed Attorney General Letitia James office about the data breach as required by lawppJames office confirmed to The Post on Thursday that Swift has not reported any data breachppLinda claims in the suit that she was told to send nude images of her exposed breasts to the office via emailppShe then scheduled a surgery to remove the implants but later canceled it prior to moving out of stateppIn July 2025 an email arrived in Lindas inbox with the subject line Your photos from Richard Swift MD have been published according to the suit ppThe message contained three nude images she emailed the office two years earlier and a link to a nowoffline websiteppThat site also contained patient names social security numbers medical and financial information and naked images of patients including of their breasts and genitalia Linda claimsppI was terrified and overwhelmed she said because once those images and your identifying information are out there you dont know who has them or how theyll be usedppAt first the site had 16 patient files but soon it grew to 22 individuals according to the suitppLawyers for Swift insisted in a filing that Linda Q has never had a doctorpatient relationship or any other form of relationship with Dr SwiftppAnd because Swift never made a promise to notify her of any data breach it was not actionable deception when she was left in the dark attorney Justin Kelton said in the court papersppWhen contacted by The Post Swifts office declined to comment and promptly hung upppHowever another plastic surgeon told The Post that Swifts claim is total bullstppA consultation establishes the doctorpatient relationshipppKelton did not respond to The Posts repeated requests for comment ppLinda said she contacted Swifts office twice to ask about a possible breach and what actions they were taking but received no responseppThree other victims Linda spoke with said they had also not received any information about the breach the suit allegesppSzalkiewicz said Swift caused immense harm by not alerting patients ppWhats worse is that the doctor then ignored pleas for help the attorney saidppThe site wasnt taken down until midSeptember Linda claimedppWe think that he was basically just gonna kick the can down the road for as long as he could and just pretend it never happened she saidppWhen a doctor mishandles your most intimate information it undermines the one place where youre required to be vulnerable and trust that youre going to be protected pp


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