Photo/Illutration The headquarters of Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. is seen on the left in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward on July 4. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The president of Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. apologized on Nov. 27 for the system failure from a cyberattack that has persisted since late September, which may have leaked nearly 2 million pieces of personal information.

"We have caused inconvenience to many customers and business partners," Atsushi Katsuki said at a news conference in Tokyo. "We sincerely apologize for the trouble we have caused." 

He announced that the company aims to fully normalize logistics operations by February next year, which have disrupted shipments of beer, other beverages and food items.

This marked the first time that Katsuki publicly discussed the situation since the system failure was triggered.

On why the news conference was held on this day, the Asahi president said, "We decided to hold this briefing at the time when the investigation into the personal information leak was completed."

At the news conference, Katuski revealed that as of Nov. 27, there is a possibility that 1.914 million pieces of information, including 1.525 million items of personal data such as customer names, gender, addresses and phone numbers, have been leaked.

The company confirmed that the system failure was caused by a cyberattack on Sept. 29. The ransomware group “Qilin” claimed responsibility for the attack.

Katsuki said that “the attackers' methods were extremely sophisticated and advanced.”

“We believed we had implemented necessary and sufficient countermeasures,” he said, adding that, “This has taught us the lesson that we must further enhance our risk management.”

Katsuki said the company had had no contact with the perpetrator group and has not received any direct threats nor paid any ransom. 

About 10 days before the system failure occurred, external attackers infiltrated the company’s network via network equipment located at a facility within the company.

After that, they entered the data center, stole passwords and took over administrator access. It is believed they repeatedly used that account to access servers and conduct reconnaissance.

Confirming the damage, Katsuki explained, "We prioritized preventing further damage and proceeded cautiously with restoration and recovery work."

He added, "Please understand that it took time because we had to avoid any risk of expanding the damage."

Asked about lax password management at the data center, Katsuki said he “cannot answer that.”

“However, I think it is certain that it was vulnerable," he said. "The improvement of vulnerabilities has already been completed.”

As for the effect on the company's operations since late September, most of Asahi's approximately 30 domestic factories producing beer, beverages and food have halted orders, production and shipments.

Even now, employees are manually processing orders and production has only partially resumed.

As a result, orders for beer from competitors Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo have surged beyond expectations.

These three companies, facing difficulties in assuring a stable supply, have imposed shipping restrictions and suspended sales of beer products for year-end gifts, spreading the impact across the entire industry.

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