In South Korea, a large-scale fire at the National Data Centre knocked out some of the government’s online services and internal networks. The incident occurred on Friday evening, 26 September, and led to the forced shutdown of hundreds of servers.
According to preliminary information, the fire was caused by the explosion of a lithium-ion battery during maintenance. The battery in question was manufactured by LG Energy Solution. The fire damaged part of the equipment, which seriously hampered the operation of government systems.
On Saturday, 27 September, special services and technical teams are trying to resume services. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing.
The websites of some ministries, the mobile identification system, the postal service and the government’s legal database are currently unavailable.
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok apologised for the inconvenience caused by the service outages and said the government would make every effort to “resume operations as soon as possible”. He also said that tax deadlines for citizens approaching will be postponed.