Japan’s number one beer brand Asahi Group halts production: A lesson in OT resilience

The recent cyberattack that disrupted operations at Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Japan’s largest brewing company, provides a clear and current example of how modern threats directly impact industrial giants. For manufacturers, a cyber incident is no longer just a risk of data theft; it is an immediate threat to Operational Technology (OT) and production continuity. When the disruption hit the brewer — owner of internationally recognized brands like Peroni and Pilsner Urquell — it highlighted critical security weaknesses that span the entire food and beverage manufacturing sector. 

The attack resulted in a system failure that necessitated the complete suspension of ordering and shipment operations across Asahi's group companies in Japan. Furthermore, call center operations and customer service desks were rendered unavailable. 

Most critically, the system failure forced the brewer to halt production across its Japanese facilities, which operate 30 plants nationwide. While the company reported that the disruption was contained to its Japan-based operations and that there was no confirmed leakage of personal information or customer data at the time of the announcement, the scale of the production shutdown underscores a core vulnerability: the interconnected nature of IT and OT systems. The company is actively working to investigate the cause and restore operations, but the temporary production halt inevitably creates supply chain pressures. 

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting the manufacturing sector, which accounts for a significant portion of all recorded cyber incidents in the APAC region. The food and beverage industry has become a high-value target because organizations cannot tolerate downtime. 

When production halts at a major enterprise like Asahi, the fallout extends far beyond a single company's ledger. The suspension of shipments creates immediate logistics bottlenecks, putting supply chain pressure on wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants that depend on consistent deliveries. For organizations with intricate global supply chains, even a temporary disruption can severely impact distribution agreements and long-term customer relationships. 

In today’s digitized world, production relies on automated bottling lines, smart logistics, and a tight integration between the factory floor (OT) and the corporate network (IT). This wave of digital transformation, while delivering efficiency, has also expanded the attack surface. Attackers exploit common weaknesses, such as unpatched legacy OT systems and persistent security blind spots between environments, to move laterally and cripple mission-critical systems. This incident demonstrates that maintaining business continuity requires a singular focus on protecting the entire environment, from the edge device to the core data center. 

For global enterprises that rely on operational efficiency, cyber protection is non-negotiable. Protecting data is essential, but ensuring business continuity requires a unified solution that addresses the five vectors of cyber risk: safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security. And today, compliance requirements are echoing the necessity of robust cybersecurity and data protection. 

Organizations must adopt a comprehensive platform that natively integrates cybersecurity, data protection and endpoint management. By doing so, companies can ensure they are equipped not just to recover from a cyberattack, but to minimize resulting downtime by having fully tested, reliable recovery capabilities for both IT and OT assets. Incidents like the one at Asahi are a decisive reminder: the ability to detect, respond and restore operations quickly is the only way to safeguard critical infrastructure and preserve global supply chain integrity.