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According to IT Home reported on September 28 that the South Korean government is working tirelessly to repair its online public service system, which was severely damaged in a major fire. Late Friday evening local time, a massive fire broke out at South Korea's national-level data center located in Daejeon, plunging dozens of public services into paralysis.

According to South Korea's National Information Resources Service (NIRS), the massive fire broke out at the agency's facilities around 8:20 p.m. local time on Friday. Preliminary investigations suggest the fire may have been caused by a set of lithium-ion uninterruptible power supplies that had already been disconnected from power and were scheduled to be moved to the basement. UPS battery explodes.

Reuters reported that the batteries involved were sourced from Manufactured by LG Energy Solution. This battery explosion triggered The "thermal runaway" phenomenon has caused a sharp rise in temperature within the server room. The on-site environment was extremely dangerous, making it impossible for firefighters to implement more aggressive firefighting measures. Approximately 170 to 200 firefighters, supported by more than 60 fire trucks, were deployed to the scene. By around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, the blaze was largely under control—but officials later reported that the fire had partially reignited later that morning, prompting rescue teams to resume ventilation and smoke removal operations.

According to the Korea Herald, rescue operations have been limited as excessive water usage could worsen battery damage or cause fires to spread between servers. Firefighters are primarily relying on carbon dioxide fire suppression systems and carefully controlled ventilation techniques to contain the blaze.

Due to severe damage to the cooling system, humidity control system, and power supply equipment, relevant departments were forced to shut down more than... 600 servers. The Daejeon Data Center currently hosts 647 government information systems, accounting for nearly one-third of South Korea’s entire online information infrastructure, have now been suspended. To address the security risks, firefighters also removed nearly 400 sets of lithium-ion battery packs that had already been burned from the site.

As of Saturday morning, several key public services in South Korea remained disrupted. Affected systems include the mobile identity authentication system, postal online services, the national legal database, and the central government's complaint and petition platform. Additionally, internal email systems across multiple government departments have temporarily become inaccessible. This incident has left South Korea… The location-tracking feature of the 119 emergency rescue service has failed, and at the same time, the nationwide government intranet has completely collapsed, leaving public officials in Daejeon City and the neighboring administrative capital, Sejong City, unable to access online systems.

On Saturday, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min Seok chaired an emergency meeting broadcast live on television, expressing regret over the disruption of public services and pledging swift action to address the situation. He stated, "Because critical government systems are heavily concentrated in a single facility, controlling the fire has become exceptionally challenging." Kim announced that tax payment deadlines would be extended to ease the burden on the public, and he instructed officials to prioritize restoring services closely tied to people's daily lives.

South Korea's Minister of Public Administration and Security Yun Ho Jung announced separately that the government’s information system has been upgraded from the "Attention" level to the "Severe" level in terms of crisis management, emphasizing that all available resources will be mobilized to minimize the impact of service disruptions. Currently, the timeline for system recovery remains unclear. The head of the data center stated that, at this stage, it is still impossible to provide a reliable estimate of when services can resume.

Deputy Minister of the Interior Kim Min Jae pointed out that the immediate priority is to stabilize the environmental control and cooling systems, after which servers will be gradually restarted. "The temperature and humidity control equipment is currently being repaired. Once this process is complete, the government will systematically resume server operations and progressively restore all services," he stated at the press conference.

South Korean officials emphasized that critical services such as postal, financial, and legal services will be prioritized for restoration. Additionally, the internal networks of government offices in Daejeon and Sejong have already "completely collapsed." The South Korean government has issued an urgent public notice, advising citizens to use alternative websites or visit offline service centers whenever possible to handle their affairs.

South Korea's National Data Service Center is the core cloud service platform for government ministries and databases nationwide, with backup data centers also located in Gwangju and Daegu. However, this incident once again highlights the systemic risks posed by the excessive concentration of critical infrastructure.

IT Home noticed ， This isn’t the first time South Korea has experienced large-scale service disruptions caused by a widespread failure at a data center. In 2022, a fire broke out at a privately owned data center in Bundang, shutting down multiple services under Kakao and affecting tens of millions of users. Once again, this incident has sparked widespread discussions about the security of critical information infrastructure deployment.

Source of information: A fire at South Korea's National Data Center has crippled nearly one-third of the government's online systems, as officials work around the clock to restore full functionality.