Asahi Sees 1.9 M. Sets of Personal Data Compromised

Tokyo, Nov. 27 (Jiji Press)–Japanese beverage giant Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. said Thursday that 1,914,000 sets of personal information were compromised due to the recent cyberattack that prompted a suspension of shipments of beer and other products. “We deeply apologize for causing great inconvenience to our customers,” President Atsushi Katsuki told a news conference. He explained the situation in public for the first time since a system failure caused by the cyberattack occurred on Sept. 29. Of the total, 1.52 million sets are data from customers who contacted group companies, as well as personal data of employees. Employee data were confirmed to have been exposed in 18 cases. Katsuki said that the company plans to resume placing and taking orders through its system in early December, aiming to fully restore its logistics operations by February 2026. The company will take recurrence prevention measures such as tightening access restrictions and improving the accuracy of its cyberattack detection. He also said that financial compensation to customers would be handled case by case. “I myself want to fulfill my responsibility,” he said regarding the issue of whether he should step down. The ransomware attack forced the beverage group to suspend production and shipments at most of its domestic plants. The group is processing orders manually, while industry peers have seen a surge in demand for substitute products as a result. “An outside attacker broke into the system through network equipment at a group facility about 10 days before the system failure,” Katsuki explained, adding that the group has not paid a ransom. After the press conference, an industry official expressed hope that the Asahi group would recover as quickly as possible. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]