In July, DataBreaches reported a data breach involving the plastic surgery practice of Gary Motykie, M.D. The incident, which appeared to be a hack with an extortion demand, had been reported to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, but an upset patient had also contacted NBC News in Los Angeles to reveal that a leak site had been created that was exposing nude photos of named patients with their full medical records. The identity of the attackers was not revealed, but the leak site included what appeared to be personal and explicit sex videos and pictures involving Dr. Motykie. Other videos, also sensitive and explicit in content, appeared to involve Dr. Motykie’s brother and the brother’s girlfriend in private moments.
In an update, DataBreaches reported that patients had been contacted and offered the option to pay the attackers directly to get their data removed. In email communications with this site, the attackers also provided what they claimed was proof of claims, showing files with passwords to accounts and other information. In one of those communications, those responsible for the leak site claimed that Dr. Motykie stored the explicit videos of himself on his work PC and stored the private and sensitive videos of his brother on his OneDrive. Whether Dr. Motykie had his brother’s consent to have or store those videos was and remains unknown to DataBreaches. This site had reached out to Dr. Motykie and also to the brother’s lawyer, as the brother has prior and unrelated litigation against Dr. Motykie that even specifically alleged the doctor had obtained private videos of the brother without the brother’s consent. But no one responded to inquiries about the videos at all.
The leak site with Dr. Motykie’s patient data and the NSFW videos was only one of two leak sites created by the same unknown individuals. The second site also exposed patients’ nude pictures and medical records. That site has not been updated (i.e., no further patient files have been added) since August 6.
But on some date unknown to DataBreaches, the leak site for Dr. Motykie was removed and all that appears now is a statement saying:
Important: This website is closed.
Dr. Motykie and his brother private videos published on this website were deep fakes.
Sorry for any inconveniences and shocking content placed here before.
Were the videos really deep fakes, or did Dr. Motykie or someone simply pay the attackers to remove all of the content and claim that the videos were deep fakes? Given that Dr. Motykie and the brother’s lawyer never responded to inquiries and never claimed that the videos were fakes when contacted about the leak site, it seems reasonable to suspect that the attackers were just paid to remove the leak site and make that statement. An inquiry has been sent to Dr. Motykie inquiring about that, but no reply was immediately available.
But the issue of the videos aside, the good news for patients is that the leak site with their nude pictures and medical records has been removed. Whether the attackers really deleted any files they held is unknown, and if they lied about the videos, they certainly cannot be trusted if they gave their word that they were deleting files. It would be prudent for patients to assume that their files are still in criminals’ hands and that they should remain vigilant.