The shelves might look a little emptier at your local Japanese bar or grocery store these days. A serious cyberattack has hit Asahi Group, a major beverage company there. This hack is causing real problems for getting their drinks to customers.
Asahi Group had to stop many of its regular business tasks in Japan. This started on September 29. Things like taking new orders, shipping products, and even their phone customer service lines all came to a halt.
By October 1, Asahi found a way to start taking some orders again. They sent people out to meet customers face-to-face and wrote down orders by hand. But this limited solution only worked for food and fizzy drinks. Unfortunately, orders for alcoholic beverages were still impossible to place.
Asahi finally confirmed the attack on October 3. They reported that ransomware malware was used against the company. They are now planning to reopen their phone service centers for orders sometime next week. The company is also working with outside tech experts. Their goal is to get their computer systems back up and running.