Asahi, Japan’s largest brewer, has confirmed that personal data may have been stolen in the ransomware attack that forced the company to temporarily halt beer production. A cyber-attack late last month disrupted core operations, including the accounting system and beer shipments from most of its 30 factories across Japan.
Operational Chaos and Data Risk
While all of Asahi’s facilities have now partially reopened and resumed production, the computer systems remain down. This has forced staff to process orders manually using pen, paper, and fax machines. In a statement released Tuesday, Asahi announced it was investigating the extent of the data breach. The company said, “As we continue investigating… we have identified the possibility that personal information may have been subject to unauthorised data transfer.” Asahi pledged to promptly notify those affected if the investigation confirms the theft. The specific type of personal information stolen remains unclear.
The attack was claimed by the Russia-based ransomware group Qilin, which has a history of hacking other large organizations, including the NHS. This incident has been described as part of a record rise in “nationally significant” cyber-attacks over the last year, with major British companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Marks and Spencer, and Co-op also having been recently affected.
Financial Disclosure Delayed
The impact of the incident is significant enough that Asahi has been forced to delay the disclosure of its third-quarter financial results. The company cited the disruption to its internal accounting systems, noting that the release will be pushed back more than 45 days after the quarter’s end, depending on the progress of system restoration. Asahi apologized for the difficulties caused by the attack and confirmed that only its systems and operations in Japan, which account for about half of its total sales, have been affected. Asahi Group owns global brands including Peroni, Grolsch, and Pilsner Urquell, and the operations of its UK subsidiary, Fullers, remain unaffected.
What The Author Thinks
Microsoft’s move to make cloud saving the default in Word, while framed as a beneficial feature against data loss, is fundamentally a crucial strategic step to enforce user lock-in and solidify OneDrive as the mandatory foundation for the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. By making document saving seamless, the company simultaneously ensures that user data is available for future monetization through AI services like CoPilot, effectively making the convenience of auto-save inseparable from the necessity of cloud storage. This change is a clear indicator that the value of productivity software now lies not in the application itself, but in the proprietary data it channels into the cloud.
Featured image credit: Beaumont Yun via Unsplash
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