Asahi Suspends Some Beverage Shipments After Hit by Cyberattack in Japan

Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. suspended some beverage shipments on Monday after a cyberattack hobbled some of the drinks company’s operations in Japan.

The maker of Asahi and Peroni beer said the disruption from the system failure is so far limited to its Japanese operations. It has suspended order and shipment operations at group companies in Japan, as well as call centers, which include its customer service desks.

The company said there has been no confirmed leakage of personal or client data at this time. It wasn’t immediately clear whether hackers had demanded an extortion payment from the firm.

Asahi Group shares dropped as much as 2.1% in Tokyo on Tuesday morning, compared to a roughly 0.2% decline in the broader Topix index.

The incident follows a series of damaging breaches at automakers, retailers and in other industries around the world this year.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc said Monday its operations would resume “in the coming days” after a ransomware attack caused its plants in the UK, Slovakia, India and Brazil to be out of action since the beginning of September. Hackers also caused disruptions though Britain’s retail sector earlier this year with attacks on Marks & Spencer Group Plc, supermarket chain Co-Op and at the luxury department store Harrods Ltd.

Asahi didn’t offer a timetable on when it expected to return to normal operations.

Photograph: An Asahi brewery in Japan. Photo credit: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg