SAYA University Highlights Urgent Need for Employee Cyber Awareness in Wake of Asahi Attack

SAYA Cybersecurity Awareness Japan

JAPAN, October 11, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Following Asahi Group Holdings’ announcement that its servers were compromised in a ransomware attack on September 29—disrupting domestic ordering, shipping, and production across Japan. It has also been revealed that a hacker group known as Qilin has claimed responsibility for the attack. The company confirmed that its internal servers were specifically targeted by ransomware.

In response, SAYA University today called on Japanese enterprises to accelerate employee cybersecurity awareness and operational preparedness. The incident highlights how quickly a single intrusion can cascade through supply chains and customer service, paralyzing critical business functions in a matter of hours. Fortunately, shipments of Asahi Super Dry resumed on October 7, with production of other products scheduled to gradually restart from October 15.

Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts an organization’s data and demands payment to restore access. Most attacks begin with a phishing email or social engineering tactic that tricks an employee into opening a malicious link or attachment—allowing cybercriminals to infiltrate internal systems.

“Technology controls fail when people aren’t prepared. Training isn’t a checkbox—it’s operational resilience,” said Jonathan Rossi, Co-Founder of SAYA University. “Our Japan-native, anime-based micro-learning makes security awareness ‘atarimae’—a daily habit that reduces the likelihood of successful social engineering and speeds up incident reporting when seconds matter. When employees are regularly trained in the SAYA security  awareness environment and when you build an collaborative security culture, they are more likely to identify suspicious behavior.  It’s about creating and supporting a security culture.  Security awareness training is no longer optional.  It is an absolute must-have, what we like to say in Japanese as “atarimae.”

Why now 

・October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, offering a timely moment to reset enterprise basics; in Japan, government-led awareness campaigns traditionally run Feb 1–Mar 18—many companies participate in both cycles. 

・The global average cost of a data breach is roughly $4.44M (IBM 2025), and operational outages inflate losses beyond pure data exposure. 

How SAYA helps (built for Japan) 

・Modern social-engineering defenses – scenarios on MFA fatigue, QR phishing, help-desk impersonation, AI-produced Deepfakes,supplier fraud, and BEC.Modern day phishing, as a result of AI,has made cybercriminalscapable to produce incredibly realistic social engineering in Japanese. This reality reinforces the need to have a robust security awarenessprogram in place for Japanese employees.
・Micro-learning (“スキマ学習”) – 3–5 minute modules employees actually finish; rapid refreshers aligned to real incidents. 
・Playbooks & drills – teach early reporting and, how to identify suspicious emails.Every employee is a target when it comes to a cybercriminal’s exploit.They focus on everyday employees. The less trained andaware an employee, the easier for their attacks to succeed, thus greatly enhancing their ability to plant malwareand conduct ransomware.
・Localized atarimae security – cultural nuance, Japan-specific examples, bilingual assets for HQ–subsidiary alignment. 

Call to action for Japan enterprises 

・Run a 30‑day “Secure Our World” campaign with weekly micro‑modules plus phishing simulations. 
・Prioritize employee participation and encouragethat everyone benefitsfrom security awareness training. Also ensure security awareness is not about penalizing mistakes and lack of knowledge. We ALL LEARN TOGETHER. 

About SAYA University 

SAYA University is Japan’s premier employee risk‑mitigation platform, offering the largest Japan‑native cybersecurity awareness library. Through anime‑based micro‑learning, SAYA helps organizations build everyday security habits that lower risk and speed recovery when incidents occur. 

Media Contact
SAYA Cybersecurity Awareness
Email: Yuka@SayaUniversity.com
Email: Safety@SayaUniversity.com

Yuka Komeji
SAYA
yuka@sayauniversity.com

Yuka Komeji
SAYA
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