South Korea scrambles to restore digital services after data centre fire
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung (on screen) offering an apology during a disaster response meeting on Sept 29.
PHOTO: EPA
Follow topic:
SEOUL – South Korea brought back online on Sept 29 fewer than a 10th of public services disrupted after a fire at a data centre affected government websites, exposing its digital infrastructure vulnerabilities.
One of the world’s most wired countries, South Korea has put many government services online, from identification to media briefings, but officials have given no timetable for a full restoration of services.
Affected agencies ranged from police and fire to customs authorities, said the Safety Ministry, whose own website was among those out of service on Sept 29.
The authorities said 62 systems were restored, out of 647 affected by the fire on Sept 26 during routine maintenance in a server room at the state-run National Information Resources Service in the city of Daejeon, home to the government data centre.
“We see services restoring every hour,” Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung told a briefing, citing the recovery of Government24, South Korea’s main portal for public services, and financial and postal systems run by Korea Post.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has apologised for the disruption, saying it was surprising that the government had no better backup after similar service outages in 2023.
Vice-Safety Minister Kim Min-jae said the government had extended deadlines for some tax payments, while waiving fees for the issue of documents, but at least four weeks would be needed to restore some 96 systems completely damaged in the fire.
Experts said the latest outage suggested that the government lacked adequate systems for immediate recovery of critical public services, despite major tech disruptions in recent years.
In 2022, a fire at a data centre hit some of South Korea’s most-used apps and websites, including Kakao messenger and the company’s online payment services, among others.
Professor Lee Seong-yeob from Korea University’s Graduate School of Management of Technology said: “Such disruptions should never occur at a national agency, and real-time synchronisation and recovery systems need to be implemented as soon as possible.”
The head of the school’s centre for technology law and policy, added: “The government should have recognised the need for a higher level of contingency planning, but it seems they were complacent.”
On Sept 28, President Lee ordered “significant improvement” in the security of government systems and asked ministers to propose budgets for emergency systems to prevent similar outages.
Battery expired
Investigators suspect the fire began after a battery produced by LG Energy Solution exploded during maintenance on the night of Sept 26, damaging some servers and forcing hundreds to be shut down. LG Energy Solution declined to comment, saying the matter was under investigation.
Mr Yun said the government would notify the public as major services came back online, and warned of increased disruption to daily life while recovery continued.
The batteries, sold and maintained by LG Energy affiliate LG CNS, had been used for more than a decade and their warranty expired in 2024, according to the Safety Ministry.
LG CNS had advised the government to replace them during a routine check-up in June 2024, although they remained functional, the ministry said. REUTERS
