Japanese brewing giant Asahi hit by cyber-attack

Japanese brewing giant Asahi has been hit by a cyber-attack that has caused a “systems failure” affecting the company’s shipping and customer service operations.

Asahi said there had been no “confirmed leakage of personal information of customer data” and its European operations, including the UK, were not affected.

But the company said that its order and shipment operations in Japan and customer service operations had been suspended.

Asahi is the biggest brewer in Japan, but also owns global beer brands including Peroni, Pilsner Urquell and Grolsch. It also owns Fullers in the UK, which is brewed in West London.

Asahi apologised to its customers and business partners in a statement.

“We are actively investigating the cause and working to restore operations; however these is currently no estimated timeline for recovery”, it said.

“The system failure is limited to our operations within Japan.”

“None of Asahi’s manufacturing operations in Europe, including its UK beer supply, are impacted by this incident”, it added.

In the UK, a number of big businesses have been hit by cyber attacks in recent months including Harrods, Jaguar Land Rover, Marks and Spencer and the Co-op.

The BBC has asked Asahi for further detail on the impact to its Japanese operations.