709 Systems Restored in 95 Days
Government24 and Other Services Paralyzed Before Chuseok
Major Impact from Administrative System Shutdown
Going forward, safety management standards and disaster recovery (DR) systems for public data centers handling administrative information systems will be strengthened. Marking the complete restoration of the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) following the fire in September, the government has decided to focus on improving related infrastructure.
On December 30, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that all 709 systems affected by the NIRS fire had been restored as of 9:30 a.m. that day. This comes 95 days after the fire at the NIRS Daejeon headquarters. The last three systems to be restored were those relocated and recovered to the Daegu Center's public-private partnership cloud: support for the Smart Work Center, the Mobile e-Government System, and support for the Mobile e-Government System, all of which were restored the previous day.
Previously, on September 26, just before the Chuseok holiday, a fire broke out during the relocation of lithium-ion batteries at the NIRS Daejeon headquarters, paralyzing the government's administrative information systems. Immediately after the fire, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety issued a disaster crisis alert and activated the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. As the system recovery rate gradually increased, the crisis alert level was lowered, and the headquarters was transitioned to the "Crisis Response Headquarters" and the "Crisis Response Team."
With all systems restored as of this day, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety lifted the "caution" level disaster crisis alert and ended the disaster response system for administrative information systems. However, even after the response system is terminated, each ministry will directly monitor its respective systems, and in the event of any issues, will respond swiftly through cooperation among relevant agencies.
The ministry will also work to fundamentally improve the infrastructure of information systems, an issue highlighted by the NIRS fire. Once the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee establishes innovation plans for AI government infrastructure and governance, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will proceed with related work. Safety management standards for public data centers, which have been criticized as inferior to those of private data centers, will be strengthened. In addition, disaster recovery (DR) systems-such as system redundancy and real-time backup-will be comprehensively improved to ensure they function effectively during disasters.
The ministry's budget for next year has also been increased to reflect expenditures related to the NIRS. The National Assembly approved 49 billion won for building IT equipment for emergency restoration and transitioning to private cloud services, as well as 343.4 billion won for improving major disaster recovery (DR) systems and gradually relocating the aging Daejeon center.
The government is undertaking such sweeping measures because the impact of the "administrative system shutdown" during the NIRS fire was so significant. Just before the Chuseok holiday, public inconvenience grew across all aspects of daily life, including Korea Post parcel delivery, Government24, and mobile identification services. Access to the "e-Haneul Funeral Information System," a service for reserving cremation facilities, was also restricted, causing reservation disruptions.
The impact on government offices and industry was also considerable. The "G-Drive," a cloud service used by public officials for work, was lost without backup, and even the email system was paralyzed, forcing officials to use private messengers until restoration was complete. Essential systems for businesses, such as the Strategic Goods Management System and the Korea ON-line E-Procurement System, also stopped functioning, leading to an increase in complaints from companies.
Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung stated, "Taking this incident as a lesson, the government will fundamentally improve the entire national information resources management system and focus all efforts on enhancing its stability and reliability."
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