Underwriting agency Coalition now offers a standard limit of $500,000 on cybercrime cover for eligible occupations in Australia.

Limits up to $1 million are also available upon referral to an underwriter.

The doubling of the limit comes after the cyber-focused agency’s claims in Australia, Canada, the US and UK revealed the average funds transfer fraud loss is now $US185,000 ($278,000).

Social engineering is a leading threat. Attackers may pose as executives, vendors or financial institutions to trick employees into initiating unauthorised wire transfers.

“Our claims show there was a clear gap in the market,” head of underwriting Trent Nihill said.

“This proactive step aligns with Coalition’s approach, which combines extensive data insights and security tools to help organisations prevent claims and minimise impact when incidents do occur.”

Coalition says business email compromise and funds transfer fraud accounted for 60% of global cyber claims last year.

Claims frequency fell 7% and the average loss was $US292,000 ($438,000) – well below the high point of $US393,000 ($589,500) in 2023.

Ransomware remains the costliest cyberattack.

Coalition says 44% of policyholders that suffered ransomware opted to pay the demand. Its response service was able to negotiate ransoms down by an average of 60%.

Akira ransomware led to 13% of Coalition’s ransomware claims last year, with an average demand of $US692,000 ($1.04 million).

Play ransomware made up 6%, with an average demand of $US2.6 million ($3.9 million), and Black Basta accounted for 3% and had the highest average at $US4 million ($6 million).

Last October, Coalition signed a long-term capacity agreement with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance to write more business in the Australian market. This added to the binder authority it secured with Allianz when it began operations here in 2023.

Coalition also has policyholders in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

See the claims report here.