Asahi Brewery Attack: Russian Group Qilin Says It Stole 27 GB of Company Data

The failure of the ordering system, which paralyzed production at the Japanese brewery group Asahi, was probably caused by a Russian-speaking hacker group. They claimed responsibility for the attack and explained that tens of gigabytes of company data had also been stolen.

Qilin reports theft of 27 GB of data

The Japanese beverage manufacturer Asahi is still affected by a ransomware attack that has largely paralyzed the company’s internal computer systems. As a result of the attack that occurred last week, the company had to start processing its ordering processes again by telephone and in person, but was able to resume production, which had been stopped in the meantime, at a total of 30 locations, which also include six large breweries, a few days ago.

Now the Russian-speaking group Qilin has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group published a statement on a website yesterday saying that they had not only disabled Asahi Group’s systems, but also stolen a total of around 27 gigabytes of internal data. This allegedly includes information containing personal data of employees, various financial documents, contracts, plans and business development forecasts.

It is said that a total of more than 9,300 files were stolen. Asahi had previously had to admit that attackers had managed to carry out an “unauthorized data transfer”. In addition to Asahi itself, the beverage company from Japan also includes the Peroni, Kozer, Pilsner Urquelle, Grolsch and Fuller breweries. So far, Asahi has not wanted to comment on what the attackers’ demands were. Qilin is considered one of the most active ransomware groups currently.

In total, the group is said to have carried out 870 successful attacks since 2022, without taking any serious consequences into account. According to the authorities, a patient died in a London hospital as a result of an attack on the British diagnostics service provider Synnovis. Qilin even offers its services as “Ransomware-as-a-Service”. Third parties can essentially commission attacks, with Qilin then keeping a portion of the “revenue” generated by the ransomware extortion for itself.