South Korea's IT disaster

A fire at a South Korean government data center paralyzed hundreds of online government services. Although the infrastructure has been repaired, a full restoration could take weeks.

Firefighters, police, and forensic experts entered NIRS to examine the scene two days after the fire. Photo: Yonhap .

On the evening of September 27, a fire broke out at the National Information Resource Service (NIRS) of South Korea, an agency that plays a core role in providing public services. The incident severely disrupted the government 's online public services, including Korea Post and the mobile ID app.

At a cabinet meeting on the afternoon of September 28, President Lee Jae Myung offered an apology to the public. He had been briefed on the incident and the efforts to rectify the situation. Representatives from South Korean cloud service companies also attended.

NIRS in Daejeon City houses 647 government information systems, 96 of which were directly damaged by the fire.

According to the local Disaster Prevention and Control Center headquarters, as of September 29th, repairs to the necessary infrastructure to restart the systems have been completed. Network restoration, which will take longer, has also begun.

Burnt lithium-ion batteries are submerged in a water tank at the scene of a fire that occurred on September 27 at NIRS in Daejeon city. Photo: Yonhap.

The Home Office said restoring all 96 damaged systems would take about two weeks, although the exact timeframe has not yet been determined. During this time, the government will prioritize restoring unaffected systems to minimize disruption.

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“Government agencies are working to restore administrative services as quickly as possible. We will continue to publicly and transparently disclose the progress of remediation and the results of the investigation,” said Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Kim Gwan-yong.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said President Lee has pledged to "minimize disruption" for the people.

"By restoring and reactivating the system quickly, we will minimize inconvenience for the public," Kang quoted President Lee as saying at an emergency meeting.

As of the morning of September 29th, over 50% of affected network devices and 763 out of 767 critical security devices were back online.

According to the government, a cooling and dehumidifying unit was restored at 5:30 a.m. (local time). All 384 destroyed lithium-ion batteries were removed from the site on the night of September 28.

In a situation report, the Home Office stated that it aims to test all 551 affected systems by September 29th and will bring them back online in phases once communications and security infrastructure is stabilized.

At 8:20 PM on September 27th (local time), firefighters received a report of a lithium-ion battery fire in the NIRS server room. The source of the fire was later identified as a battery pack from an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system that had been disconnected for relocation.

The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that the UPS battery had been installed in August 2014, meaning it had exceeded its recommended lifespan. While the Ministry insisted the battery had undergone routine inspections and was problem-free, some experts suggest that workers may have disconnected the wires before shutting off the power, leading to a short circuit.

Police have formed a 20-person task force to investigate the cause of the fire. The investigation will determine whether the incident was related to expired components, handling errors during removal, or a lack of supervision.

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Source: https://znews.vn/tham-hoa-it-han-quoc-post1589245.html