Worthing Homes housing association data breach

Worthing Homes has confirmed that a data breach happened because of a fault with its telephone system.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that tenants’ personal details were shared in error.

Worthing Homes owns and manages nearly 4,000 properties in Sussex, providing social and affordable rented homes to more than 10,000 people, including those on council housing lists.

One tenant claims they were sent recordings of phone calls between Worthing Homes and other tenants.

A woman answers the phone, Pixabay

The tenant requested recordings of their own calls but was given access to recordings of others by mistake.

They say they were sent 29 recordings and claim that some feature ages, names, addresses, and bank details.

“This is a serious matter as if they handed all this to the wrong person, then those people could have had money taken out of their bank accounts,” the tenant said.

“I think 29 people were affected.”

Responding to the claims, a Worthing Homes spokesperson said: “This [data breach] arose because of a fault in our existing telephony system, which we are in the process of replacing with a new system.

“As soon as we became aware of the breach we reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office, with a plan of action to ensure that no further breach would happen.

“The ICO confirmed they were satisfied and would be taking no further action.”

An ICO spokesperson said: “Worthing Homes made us aware of an incident.

“After carefully reviewing the information provided, we gave data protection advice and recommendations and closed the case with no further action.”