With a lithium battery fire in the data center of the National Information Resources Service rendering the government's core information systems useless, attention is focused on when public services will return to normal. Some observers say it could take two weeks for the burned-out systems to be restarted.
According to the government on the 28th, the National Information Resources Service (hereinafter the service) is preparing to transfer 96 systems in the 5th floor 7-1 data center, which suffered heavy damage from the fire, to a public-private cooperative cloud service at the Daegu Center. Inside the government, there is a view that it could take two weeks for the burned-out systems to start up anew at the Daegu Center.
The 96 burned-out systems are said to include core government information systems such as the National Petition System, the National Law Information Center, and Onnara System, the administrative work network for civil servants. The Onnara System is essential for civil servants to conduct their work, such as submitting documents internally.
Most of the central ministries' website management systems, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, were also built in the burned 7-1 data center, so it is expected to take a considerable amount of time to return to normal.
The government's online civil service portal Government 24 and the GPKI (Government Public Key Infrastructure) used by on-site civil servants for identity verification when accessing the administrative network Saeol have also been halted. Those systems are located in the main Daejeon building's 2nd to 4th floor data centers and avoided the fire, but the service preemptively shut them down to protect information systems, stopping the services.
The services partially restarted now are mobile ID cards. Mobile ID cards were switched to the disaster recovery (DR) system at the Gwangju Center, and from the 26th, the day of the fire, all functions except new issuance and reissuance have been normalized. However, the presidential office website is operating normally and is unrelated to this fire at the service.
Because of this, it appears difficult to expect normal civil service operations next week, including on the 29th when civil service counters such as district offices and eup, myeon, and dong community centers open. The government plans to sequentially restart 551 systems that were not damaged by the fire as soon as the data center's communications and security equipment are restored, and check whether normal service is possible.
Meanwhile, Vice Premier and Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Gu Yoon-cheol held a Central Accident Management Headquarters meeting at 4 p.m. at the Government Complex Seoul to review the progress of emergency restoration for 13 systems, including the Digital Budget and Accounting System (dBrain+), e-Naradoum, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance website.
The inspection found that the National Information and Communications Network, security systems, and the Integrated Subsidies Management System are operating normally. Public-facing systems such as dBrain+, Open Fiscal Information, e-National Assets, and the non-tax revenue portal began normal operation from 4 p.m.
An official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance said, "The ministry's public website is still inaccessible," adding, "We plan to work with the service to restore it as soon as possible."