Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy: 21 Systems Paralyzed Including Strategic Goods Screening and Electricity Business Permits
Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Gyeonggi Province: In-Person Civil Service Counters and Emergency Response Systems Activate
Following a fire that broke out in the data center of the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon on September 26, major government information systems suffered severe disruptions. In response, relevant ministries and local governments, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Gyeonggi Province, launched emergency response measures simultaneously.
On September 28, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held an emergency inspection meeting presided over by Minister Kim Jungkwan to discuss the extent of damage to the ministry’s and its affiliated organizations’ IT systems, as well as future response plans. According to the ministry, the fire has paralyzed 21 systems-including 11 public services and 10 internal services-such as the strategic goods review, investigations into unfair trade practices, and applications for electricity business permits.
As a result, the ministry is shifting its work processes to manual acceptance of permit applications, in-person processing for electricity business permits, email submissions for strategic goods export reviews, and written notifications for unfair trade investigations. An emergency response team, led by the director of the Planning and Coordination Office, was also activated immediately.
Before the meeting, Minister Kim visited the Korea Trade Network (KTNET) Electronic Trade Integrated Control Center to inspect operations and emphasized the importance of preventing secondary cyber incidents.
On the same day, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a “Damage and Response Status Inspection Meeting” chaired by Vice Minister Noh Yongseok, where they shared updates on system damage by department and affiliated agencies, and closely examined the effectiveness of their Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
The ministry identified minimizing delays in public services and strengthening information systems for policy clients as its core response tasks. It also plans to enhance proactive inspections and field-based responses by department, continue efforts to reduce delays in support program processing, and provide ongoing guidance for alternative service use.
Vice Minister Noh stated, “Our top priority is to minimize inconvenience so that administrative services for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners are not interrupted,” and urged all departments to implement swift measures.
Gyeonggi Province was also severely affected by the fire. The province announced that 18 online civil service platforms linked to the central government, including Gyeonggi24, were paralyzed. Starting on September 29, it will operate in-person service counters through designated public officials. In addition, with the National Petition Portal out of service, an emergency acceptance system via the 120 Call Center will be operated concurrently.
In particular, when the mobile phone location information system used for 119 emergency calls was disrupted, the Gyeonggi Fire and Disaster Headquarters began working with the police to develop countermeasures by sharing systems. At an emergency inspection meeting, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dongyeon emphasized the importance of field-oriented responses, instructing officials to “quickly devise practical measures to minimize inconvenience for residents.”
The fire is believed to have started in a lithium battery inside the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon at approximately 8:20 p.m. on September 26. It was fully extinguished by around 6:00 p.m. on September 27. Since then, both government external services and internal networks have been widely paralyzed, and step-by-step restoration is currently underway. As of 9:30 a.m. on September 28, major government-linked systems such as the Korea ON-line E-Procurement System and the National Petition Portal remain out of service.
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