Coalition has rolled out an Australian-based incident response capability, appointing Praneil Kumar to lead its affiliate digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) division, Coalition Incident Response (CIR).
Kumar’s career spans more than 10 years in cybersecurity consulting, covering DFIR work, threat detection, security operations, and governance, risk, and compliance.
Before joining Coalition, he held senior roles at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, where he oversaw cyber capability development and managed large-scale security projects for organisations in multiple sectors.
In his new role, Kumar will focus on providing direct assistance to policyholders facing cyber incidents, from containment through to recovery.
He noted that smaller organisations – such as community medical practices – can be severely disrupted when digital systems are locked by cyberattacks, and that CIR’s goal is to offer clear, expert guidance during such events.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always been driven by the challenge of actively countering digital threats and building resilient security capabilities. Joining Coalition is a natural next step, and I am incredibly excited about this opportunity,” Kumar said. “It allows me to leverage my deep cybersecurity experience to work side-by-side with our Australian policyholders – businesses that are essential to our economy and people, but often lack the resources to manage cyber incidents alone.”
CIR’s services range from negotiating with threat actors to deploying advanced forensic tools and coordinating with cybersecurity vendors to help limit data loss and financial damage.
Coalition reported that in 2024, the unit managed more than 700 global incidents, with over half resolved without extra cost to policyholders.
At the start of August, Coalition appointed Connor McKay as head of business development for Australia, with responsibility for implementing a state-focused distribution model and strengthening broker engagement.
McKay joined the company in 2023 as national development manager, after business development and underwriting roles with Emergence Insurance and NM Insurance.
He will work with business development teams in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney to improve local market knowledge and provide brokers with faster, more tailored support.
These leadership changes follow the company’s mid-year decision to increase its standard cyber crime cover for Australian policyholders to $500,000.
The amount now applies automatically to new policies for certain eligible industries, representing 25% of the overall policy limit.
Cover of up to $1 million is available subject to underwriting approval.
The move came after the release of Coalition’s 2025 Cyber Claims Report, which found that business email compromise (BEC) and funds transfer fraud (FTF) together made up 60% of global claims, with nearly one-third of BEC cases resulting in FTF. Average global losses from FTF incidents were $290,000.
In Australia, BEC and FTF also remain the most common claims types. While the overall global frequency of claims declined by 7% year-on-year, the financial severity of BEC incidents increased by 23%.
The report also noted that Coalition policyholders recorded substantially fewer claims than the broader market, based on US benchmark data.
