Cyberattack Halts Beer Production in Japan.

Japan's supermarket shelves and izakaya pubs could soon be temporarily stripped of the country’s most popular beer, Asahi Super Dry.

A cyberattack has paralysed Asahi’s domestic operations since Monday, disabling ordering and delivery systems, bringing most of its 30 factories to a halt. The disruption is already rippling through Japan’s retail and hospitality sectors:

• Major convenience store chains warn shelves could be empty within days.
• Pubs and restaurants reliant on Asahi draught are preparing for shortages.
• The launch of eight new products from fruit sodas to protein bars has been postponed indefinitely.
• Shares fell 2.6% in a single day as confidence wavered.

For Japan’s largest brewer, which produces the equivalent of 6.7 million bottles daily, the scale of disruption is extraordinary. It also exposes a wider vulnerability: modern supply chains can seize up entirely when digital infrastructure fails.

A Pattern of Operational Cyberattacks

In Japan, attacks are rising. The country’s National Police Agency recorded 222 ransomware cases in 2024, up 12% from the previous year though experts believe the real number is far higher. In nearly half of reported cases, companies said it took them more than a month to fully restore data. For manufacturers and consumer brands, that kind of delay translates directly into lost revenue, reputational damage and customer churn.

The Bigger Picture

The Asahi outage illustrates how cyber risk has shifted from data loss to business stoppage. Resilience strategies now emphasise not only defence and detection, but also continuity, ensuring that even if one part of the system is hit, the business can still function. That means embedding redundancy, sovereignty of data, and security-by-design into digital infrastructure.

At Binarii Labs, we focus on making resilience practical. In the event of a breach, if an attacker gets in, no useful data can be reconstructed, business operations continue with zero downtime, and every action carries an immutable proof of record for audit and governance.