On the 1st, it was learned that the "G-Drive," built so central government officials could use work files externally, was completely burned in the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS), and recovery is impossible because there are no backup files. The G-Drive, from which data has completely vanished, holds 858 terabytes (TB), equivalent to about 274.6 billion sheets of A4 paper documents. As a result, administrative work related to the public could be delayed.

On the morning of the 28th last month, the scene of the fire at the National Information Resources Service in Yuseong District, Daejeon, where a fire occurred. At the National Information Resources Service under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, which centrally manages computing resources, a fire started on the afternoon of the 26th during a battery replacement, disabling 70 government online services. /Courtesy of News1

The G-Drive is an external data storage system in a cloud format. Typically, civil servants work on personal computers (PCs) in the office, and data created there cannot be shared externally due to security. This creates the inconvenience of not being able to take work materials out and use them outside the office.

To eliminate such inconvenience, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety built a G-Drive exclusively for civil servants in 2017. Through this, they were able to use work materials while working remotely and share materials with other civil servants.

The G-Drive is one of the government systems that was completely burned in the NIRS fire this time. The problem is that the data stored on the G-Drive was not backed up separately. Even if the system is restored, the contents cannot be retrieved.

An NIRS official said, "The G-Drive contains a massive number of small files, so it is structured in a way that cannot back up data in real time," adding, "Some past materials were backed up on disks, but those backup disks were also completely burned in the same data center, making recovery difficult."

A central government official, identified as A, said, "We basically often work on files on PCs and save them there, but depending on personal preference, some people save all their work on the G-Drive and do their jobs," adding, "All the work files are gone, and we are literally in 'menbung' (mental breakdown)."

Some ministries actively encouraged the use of the G-Drive, so the damage is expected to be significant. A government official said, "Some ministries, including the Ministry of Personnel Management, carried out model projects that used the G-Drive as the main tool for work."

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