South Korea faces digital firestorm after data centre blaze causes disruptions

SCMP | Sept. 29, 2025, 12:57 a.m. | Original
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A notice on an automated civil document kiosk in Seoul states the machine is out of order due to a fire at the National Information Resources Service. Photo: The Korea Times

Hundreds of South Korean public services remained offline on Monday after a fire at a data centre disrupted government websites and exposed vulnerabilities in the country’s digital infrastructure.

Authorities said 62 government services had been restored out of 647 systems affected by the fire which broke out during routine maintenance in a server room at the state-run National Information Resources Service in Daejeon on Friday.

President Lee Jae-myung has apologised for the disruption, saying it was surprising the government had no better backup after similar government service outages in 2023.

Organisations affected by the fire include Korea Customs, the National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency, according to the safety ministry. Some government websites like the safety ministry were out of service as of Monday.

Officials have not given a timetable for the full restoration of the disrupted services.

“We see services restoring every hour,” Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung told a briefing, citing the recovery of Government24, Korea’s main portal for public services, and financial and postal systems run by Korea Post.

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