The chair of New York City Council’s Housing Committee is pressing for answers about a data breach affecting thousands of applicants in the city’s affordable housing lottery program.
The breach was first exposed in a CBS News New York investigation in July. Our story showed how some applications to the city-run Housing Connect lottery program popped up in search results for applicants’ names, exposing addresses, incomes and Social Security numbers in some cases.
No known reports of identity theft or fraud, city says
City Council Housing Committee Chair Pierina Sanchez sent two city commissioners a letter seeking answers after our investigation revealed the data breach, asking how the applications ended up publicly viewable online and how many New Yorkers’ private information were viewed.
“I’m really upset about this breach,” she said. “If you are a New Yorker who is struggling to make ends meet, you’re … hoping that you’re gonna score one of those apartments. You don’t then also wanna worry about your identity being stolen.”…