Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd (Asahi), the brewer of Japan’s top-selling beer, has disclosed a cyberattack that disrupted several of its operations.
According to the company, the incident has affected its ordering and shipping activity, which have been completely suspended. Call center operations and customer service desk are currently unavailable to the public due to the cyberattack.
Asahi is one of Japan’s largest breweries, holding roughly one-third of the domestic market share. It employs 30,000 people, produces 100 million hectoliters of beverages, and in 2024 the company reported an annual revenue of nearly $20 billion USD.
Internationally, the company has four regional branches (Japan, Europe, Oceania, and Southeast Asia) and maintains a strong presence through high-profile acquisitions it made over the years, holding brands like Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch, and Fullers.
Earlier today, Asahi’s Japanese headquarters reported that the cyberattack affected only Japan-based operations. It is unclear if data has been exposed or stolen, as the investigation is ongoing.
“Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. is currently experiencing a system failure caused by a cyberattack, affecting operations in Japan,” the company states in an announcement published today on its site.
“At this time, there has been no confirmed leakage of personal information or customer data to external parties.”
The company apologized to customers and business partners for the inconvenience.
Asahi says they are investigating the source of the disruption and it is working to restore the impacted operations, but did not provide a timeline for recovery.
The attack started at 7 a.m., according to some sources and there are no details about the threat actor or the initial access vector.
BleepingComputer contacted Asahi to determine if any systems were encrypted and if a ransom payment has been demanded by any hacker groups, but a comment wasn’t immediately available.
Currently, no ransomware gangs have claimed the attack publicly.
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