Crime Asahi hack resulted in leak of 1.91 million personal records

Katsuki Atsushi, the head of Asahi Group Holdings, today apologised for the cyberattack that has been crippling the company's systems since late September and may have exposed close to two million pieces of personal data. He explained that Asahi hoped to have its logistics network fully restored by February next year, as the malfunction has been affecting shipments of beer, soft drinks and food products for weeks.

It was the first time the president had addressed the matter in public since the trouble began. When asked why the briefing was being held on that particular day, he said it followed the completion of the internal review into the potential data leak. Katsuki also disclosed that, as of 27 November, there was a possibility that 1.914 million pieces of information had been compromised, including about 1.525 million items of personal data such as names, gender, addresses and telephone numbers.

The company confirmed that the system failure was caused by a cyberattack on 29 September. The ransomware group "Qilin" claimed responsibility for the attack. Katsuki said that "the attackers' methods were extremely sophisticated and advanced." "We believed we had implemented necessary and sufficient countermeasures," he said, adding that, "This has taught us the lesson that we must further enhance our risk management." Katsuki said the company had had no contact with the perpetrator group and has not received any direct threats nor paid any ransom. About 10 days before the system failure occurred, external attackers infiltrated the company's network via network equipment located at a facility within the company. After that, they entered the data center, stole passwords and took over administrator access. It is believed they repeatedly used that account to access servers and conduct reconnaissance.

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As for the effect on the company's operations since late September, most of Asahi's approximately 30 domestic factories producing beer, beverages and food have halted orders, production and shipments. Even now, employees are manually processing orders, and production has only partially resumed. As a result, orders for beer from competitors Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo have surged beyond expectations.