Asahi Group Holdings Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (ASA3932439111225)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Asahi Group Holdings breach identified under incident ID ASA3932439111225.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Asahi Group Holdings's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asahigroup-holdings, the number of followers: 202985, the industry type: Food and Beverage Services and the number of employees: 1129 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 100 and after the incident was 100 with a difference of 0 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Asahi Group Holdings and their customers.

On 06 October 2023, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. disclosed Ransomware Attack issues under the banner "Cyberattack Cripples Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., Disrupting Supply Chain and Market Position".

A ransomware attack on Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Order and shipment processing system, Financial data access and Supply chain operations, plus an estimated financial loss of Projected ¥15 billion core operating loss for Q4; full-year guidance expected to miss by 13%; higher marketing costs to win back customers.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Reversion to manual order processing (phone, fax, in-person).

The case underscores how Ongoing (as of report date), teams are taking away lessons such as Legacy system integration during consolidation creates vulnerabilities; manual backup processes (e.g., fax) are insufficient for modern operations; competitor poaching of market share during downtime can have long-term brand loyalty impacts.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including vulnerabilities in Asahi’s **fragmented legacy systems** (from acquisitions), and legacy system integration vulnerabilities during platform consolidation. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including **ransomware attack** that crippled its internal order and shipment systems, and data encryption such as Yes (disabled internal order/shipment system) and Inhibit System Recovery (T1490) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including operations remain at just **10% capacity**, severely disrupting supply, and downtime such as Over one month (as of report date, ongoing). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), with evidence including delayed earnings reports due to **inaccessible financial data**, and financial data access (systems_affected). Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001) with moderate confidence (65%), with evidence including disabled its **internal order and shipment systems** (implies cross-system compromise), and high value targets such as Order/shipment system, Financial data. Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols (T1071.001) with moderate confidence (60%), with evidence including vulnerabilities in **legacy systems** (common C2 vector for ransomware), and exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) likely enabled C2. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.