Paula Bruening Appointed Deputy Executive Director for  The Center for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams
Paula J. Bruening has been appointed Deputy Executive Director for The Center for Information Policy Leadership and Senior Policy Advisor at Hunton & Williams LLP. Bruening joins the firm after having served as counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit public interest organization, where she focused on cyber-privacy issues.

"Paula brings the special skills necessary to create collaborative solutions in an information age," said Marty Abrams, The Center's Executive Director. "She understands the intersection between policy and technology, which is so important when looking at emerging privacy issues including those arising in technologies such as RFID and social networks."

Fireman's Fund Offers Data Compromise Insurance for Businesses
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company has introduced Data Compromise, coverage that helps businesses respond quickly and effectively to a data breach, covering the costs to notify affected individuals and providing a suite of services, from credit report monitoring to identity theft restoration case management.

The service includes legal consulting, customer notification services and credit monitoring as well as identity restoration for customers, employees and others affected by a data breach.

"Many state laws require businesses to notify individuals whose information has been compromised, and it's only a matter of time before a Federal law is enacted," said Mike Roney, Senior Director, Commercial Business at Fireman's Fund. "In order to help our policyholders remain compliant, as well as maintain goodwill with their valuable customer base, we have created our Data Compromise coverage, which provides assistance throughout the data recovery process."

DHS Privacy Office Seeks Increased Funding
Hugo Teufel, CIPP/G, Chief Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has asked the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security for $5.122 million for 2008 - a 16 percent budget increase. The additional funding would be used to hire additional employees to address privacy issues and freedom of information issues.

In his written testimony, Teufel states, "Both the privacy and FOIA sides of the office have experienced significant growth over the past four years of the office's existence. Thus, on the privacy side, additional positions are needed in order to conduct the increasing number of PIAs [privacy impact assessment], SORNs [system of records notices], and internal privacy audits, as required under the E-Government Act and Homeland Security Act. As such the resources currently allocated to the Privacy Office must be increased sufficiently to match the expanded reach and operation of both of the Privacy Office's functions."

Lucy Thomson, CIPP/G, Appointed Consumer Privacy Ombudsman
Lucy Thomson, CIPP/G, was recently appointed Consumer Privacy Ombudsman by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Virginia to oversee the sale of consumer records in the Storehouse, Inc. bankruptcy case. This is only the fourth such appointment nationwide.

Thomson currently is a Senior Principal Engineer, Information Security and Privacy Advocate at global IT company Computer Sciences Corporation. She previously served as a U.S. Department of Justice attorney in the Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions.