Asahi Group Holdings has restarted operations at several of its production facilities in Japan following the ransomware attack that disrupted its systems late last month, although a full recovery remains some way off.
The company has confirmed that all six of its brewing facilities in Japan resumed operations late last week, but production is currently limited to its flagship Asahi Super Dry brand. Broader product manufacturing and shipments are due to resume from 15 October, covering 16 products including Asahi Dry Zero, Asahi Zero, Clear Asahi and Black Nikka Clear whisky.
Although the group’s production systems were not directly affected by the cyberattack, many of its breweries were forced to temporarily suspend operations because they could not process or ship orders. The company began manual order processing on 1 October, allowing limited production and distribution to resume.
Asahi said that its order processing and shipping systems remain offline, and all related tasks are still being handled manually while recovery efforts continue. The cyberattack remains confined to Asahi’s domestic operations.
The Tokyo-based company first detected the ransomware incident at the end of last month, which forced a shutdown of order placement, shipment and customer service systems across its Japanese network. An investigation is ongoing into the extent of any potential data compromise, and the company has not provided a timeline for a full system restoration.
