Asahi Cyberattack Halts Production in Japan

Asahi Group Holdings said a cyberattack on Sept. 29 caused a systems failure that suspended order, shipment and call-center operations across its Japan businesses. The outage has halted production at many of its roughly 30 domestic plants and forced suspension of some shipments, though the company says the impact is limited to Japan and its European operations appear unaffected. Asahi reports no confirmed leakage of personal or customer data and is investigating while working to restore systems, but it gave no estimated recovery timeline. Company and industry observers warned a prolonged disruption could be costly given Asahi’s large domestic market share. Inventories held by wholesalers and retailers may limit immediate product shortages, and the exact attack method has not been confirmed.