Japan's biggest brewer Asahi said today it has resumed operations at its six domestic beer factories even as a system failure due to a major ransomware attack persists.
"We are receiving orders manually via telephone and our sales agents are physically visiting our clients to process their orders," a spokeswoman for Asahi Group Holdings told AFP.
The maker of Asahi Super Dry, one of Japan's most popular beers, declined to give more details on who was behind the cyberattack - the latest in a series worldwide - or what they were demanding.
"We are in the process of investigating the extent of the attack and its impact on our system," the spokeswoman added.
Asahi started experiencing system troubles on September 29 that stopped the company's ability to receive orders and to ship its products.
Output at its 30 domestic factories, including the six beer factories, was not directly affected by the system trouble but production had to stop due to the company-wide problem.
Production at the six beer factories resumed on Thursday but the company had not previously confirmed this.
Asahi workers have also had trouble with their corporate email system.
The company said last week that it has "confirmed traces suggesting a potential unauthorised transfer of data".
Asahi expects to resume its customer service telephone service this week.
Asahi president Atsushi Katsuki apologised in a statement dated Friday.
"We are continuing our investigation to determine the nature and scope of the potential unauthorised data transfer," he said.
"We are making every effort to restore the system as quickly as possible, while implementing alternative measures to ensure continued product supply to our customers," he added.
The cyberattack raised fears of possible beer shortages in convenience stores, supermarkets and bars but there as of today there were no reports of any major disruptions.
Last month Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover was forced to seek emergency funding after a damaging cyberattack halted operations at its UK factories.
