Asahi Group Confirms Info Leaks after Cyberattack

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japanese food and beverage giant Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday that it has confirmed on the internet information that is believed to have leaked from the group due to a cyberattack. It is not known whether the information believed to have been compromised includes data on the firm’s clients. The company is rushing to identify the range and details of the information. According to the firm, the impact of the cyberattack has been limited to its domestic network, and no impact has been confirmed for its overseas system at the moment. Asahi Group has concluded that its ongoing system outage was caused by an attack using ransomware, a type of computer virus that encrypts data and demands ransom in exchange for decryption. A hacker group calling itself Qilin claimed responsibility Tuesday, saying that it stole more than 9,300 data files from the company, including financial data and personal information on employees. Asahi Group confirmed the cyberattack Sept. 29, which caused the system outage. In response, the company suspended operations at almost all of its some 30 group factories for beer, other drinks and food in Japan. The company then processed orders manually and now expects to partially restart operations at all affected plants by Thursday. Still, it remains uncertain when the company can restore the system. Following the disruption of product supplies from Asahi Group, its clients, including eating and drinking facilities, have started to order alternative items to other food and beverage makers. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]