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Japanese beer manufacturing giant Asahi has revealed that data was potentially compromised in the cyber attack it suffered last month.
At the end of September, Asahi revealed that its manufacturing operations had been taken offline following a cyber attack that prevented stores from ordering stock.
“We are actively investigating the cause and working to restore operations; however, there is currently no estimated timeline for recovery,” Asahi said in a widely reported statement at the time.
“The system failure is limited to our operations within Japan.
While Asahi restarted production in early October, orders are still being processed on pen and paper and set with fax machines as computer systems remain down.
Now, Asahi has revealed that early investigations into the cyber attack have uncovered potential compromise of personal data.
“As we continue investigating the extent and details of the impact, focusing on the systems targeted in the recent attack, we have identified the possibility that personal information may have been subject to unauthorised data transfer,” said Asahi.
“Should the investigation confirm this, we will promptly notify those concerned and take appropriate measures in accordance with applicable laws on the protection of personal information.”
Asahi did not reveal what information was potentially exfiltrated in the cyber attack.
Asahi said its Emergency Response Headquarters had engaged cyber security experts and that it aims to “restore the system as quickly as possible”, but has yet to reveal a timeline for recovery.
The cyber attack was claimed by an affiliate of the Qilin ransomware-as-a-service group, listing the Japanese beer brand on its dark web leak site.
The hacker claimed to have exfiltrated 27 gigabytes of data totalling 9,323 files and has also published 29 sample documents, which include financial statements, company invoices, photo ID of employees, and – in one case – the details of an Australian employee of Melbourne-based Asahi Lifestyle Beverages seconded to another Asahi office overseas.
For its part, Qilin claimed to have “financial documents, budgets and contracts, as well as personal data of employees, plans and development forecasts of the company”, though it does specify that some of the data it allegedly has is already in the public domain.
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