Korean IT disaster

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

A fire broke out at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS), an agency that plays a core role in providing public services, on the evening of September 27. The incident severely disrupted online government services, including the Korea Postal Service and the mobile ID application.

At a Cabinet meeting on the afternoon of September 28, President Lee Jae Myung apologized to the public. He was briefed on the incident and the efforts to remedy it. Representatives of Korean cloud service companies also attended.

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

According to the local Disaster Prevention Center Headquarters, as of September 29, the infrastructure repairs needed to restart the systems have been completed. Network restoration work, which takes more time, has also begun.

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

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

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

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

"Through the swift restoration and reactivation of the system, we will minimize inconvenience to the public," Ms. Kang quoted President Lee as saying at an emergency meeting.

As of the morning of September 29, more than 50% of network devices were affected and 763/767 important security devices were back in operation.

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

In a situation report, the Interior Ministry said it aims to check all 551 affected systems on September 29 and will bring them back online in stages once the communications and security infrastructure is stabilized.

At 8:20 p.m. on September 27 (local time), the fire department received a report of a lithium-ion battery fire in the NIRS server room. The source of the fire was later determined to be a battery pack from an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system that had been disconnected for transportation.

The Home Office said the UPS battery was installed in August 2014, which means it was past its recommended life. While the department said the battery had been regularly inspected and found no problems, some experts believe workers may have unplugged the cord before disconnecting it, leading to a short circuit.

Police have set up a 20-person task force to investigate the cause of the fire. The investigation will clarify whether the incident was related to outdated components, handling errors during the relocation process or lapses in supervision.

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