How hackers forced brewing giant Asahi back to pen and paper

There are only four bottles of Asahi Super Dry beer left on the shelves of the cozy Ben Thai restaurant in the Tokyo suburb of Sengawacho.

Its owner, Sakaolat Sugizaki, expects to receive a few more soon, but says her supplier is reserving most of its inventory for larger customers.

It comes as Asahi, maker of Japan's best-selling beer, was forced to halt production at most of its 30 factories in the country late last month after a cyber attack.

Although all of its operations in Japan, including six breweries, have partially reopened, its computer systems are still down.

This means he has to process orders and deliveries manually using pen, paper and faxes, resulting in far fewer deliveries than before the attack.

Asahi accounts for about 40% of Japan's beer market, so its problems have a major impact on bars, restaurants and retailers.

The company apologized “for any difficulties caused by the recent attack” but has not yet said when it expects its operations to resume in full.

The BBC visited convenience stores and supermarkets in Tokyo and Hokkaido, where workers said they were selling their current stock and were unable to place new orders for Asahi products, which also include water and food.

Hisako Arisawa, a Tokyo liquor store owner, said she was worried about her customers because she could only get a few bottles of Super Dry at a time and expected the outages to last at least a month.

The problem isn't just beer, she adds, there is also a shortage of Asahi soft drinks such as ginger beer and sparkling water.

Last week, some of the country's largest Convenience store chains have warned their customers to expect shortages.

FamilyMart said its Famimaru line of bottled tea made by Asahi is expected to be in short supply or out of stock.

7-Eleven has stopped supplying Asahi products to Japan, and Lawsons also said it expected shortages.

Mr. Nakano, who did not want to be named, works for a liquor wholesaler.

Although some shipments from Asahi have resumed, he says he is receiving only about 10-20% of normal volume.

His orders are now handwritten and received by fax. Asahi notifies him by fax when the trucks are ready to leave the plant.

Asahi also owns major brands in Europe such as Peroni, Grolsch and British brewer Fuller's, but the company said their operations were not affected by the cyberattack.

Ransomware group Qilin, which has previously hacked other large organizations, claimed responsibility for the attack on Asahi.

It operates a platform that allows users to carry out cyber attacks in exchange for a percentage of extortion proceeds.

Asahi did not confirm the nature of the attack on its operations, but said data believed to have been leaked in the hack was found online.

This is the latest in a series of cyberattacks by other hacking groups that have affected large companies around the world, including automakers. Jaguar Land Rover and retail giant Marks and Spencer.

Travelers were detained at several European airports in September after a ransomware attack disrupted check-in and boarding software.

Back in Japan, in 2024, a cyber attack paralyzed operations at a container terminal in Nagoya for three days.

Japan Airlines was also hacked last Christmas, causing delays and cancellations of domestic flights.

While Japan's image around the world may be that of a technologically advanced nation, some experts warn that it has insufficient cybersecurity specialists and low levels of digital literacy when it comes to business software.

The issue was brought to the fore last year when officials finally stopped asking people to submit documents to the government using floppy disksalthough they fell out of fashion in much of the world in the 1990s.

Japan is vulnerable to cyber attacks “because it relies on legacy systems and a high-trust society,” Cartan McLaughlin of Nihon Cyber ​​Defense Group told the BBC.

Many organizations in the country are not prepared for attacks and are willing to pay ransom, which makes them attractive to hackers, he added.

Speaking at a press conference this week, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the Asahi cyberattack was being investigated.

“We will continue to improve our cyber capabilities,” he added.

Earlier this year, the Japanese government passed a landmark law giving it more powers in the event of cyberattacks.

Experts have praised the Active Cyber ​​Defense (ACD) Law as it allows the government to share more information with companies and also gives police and the Japan Self-Defense Force the ability to launch their own attacks to take down attackers' servers.

But that's little comfort to small businesses like Ben Thai Restaurant and their customers.

Owner Sakaolat says she's not sure what will happen the next time she orders Super Dry, like many others across Japan.

Additional reporting by Chi Kobayashi in Tokyo