Coalition partners with Allianz for cyber insurance in Australia

San Franciscan active insurance provider Coalition is launching in Australia, backed by Allianz, offering a combination of assessment, protection and response.

Coalition will offer the comprehensive digital risk management solution with capacity provided by Allianz, to help organisations understand their cyber risk profiles, improve defences and prevent future attacks.

The Coalition Cyber Insurance and Tech E&O Insurance coverages can be sold by Australian brokers to businesses with up to $2 billion in turnover, with no premium minimum.

Coalition also promised a streamlined and efficient quoting process, with a platform that can generate binding quotes in minutes, instead of asking policy holders to complete applications spanning more than 20 pages.

As part of the launch, Coalition analysed over a thousand Australian small-to-medium sized enterprises and found multiple vulnerabilities such as three in four companies not using Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure internet connections.

The insurer also found other critical vulnerabilities, including companies using a vulnerable, unpatched version of the Exim mail server which allows attackers to take over the email system remotely and steal information.

Only a quarter of Australian SMEs use the domain message authentication reporting and conformance (DMARC) security system for email, that prevents spoofed messages.

“In the last year alone, countless businesses in Australia have suffered high-profile cyber-attacks, affecting millions of Australians and pushing cybersecurity and data privacy to the forefront of the national conversation," Joshua Motta, chief executive and co-founder of Coalition.

"Yet, only 20 per cent of Australian SMEs currently have cyber insurance, and even fewer brokers specialise in the coverage area,” Motta added.

“Cyber risk is a significant threat impacting Australian businesses today,” Phuong Ly, chief general manager of commercial at Allianz Australia said.

Coalition is active in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, having launched in 2018.

Insurance cover is given by Coalition Insurance Solutions Pty Ltd, under a binding authority given by Allianz Australia.