Key facts
- South Korea's interior ministry announced new disaster recovery measures for state data centers.
- The measures follow a fire last year at the National Information Resources Service's (NIRS) data center in Daejeon.
- The goal is to restore core administrative information systems within one hour of a disaster.
- Approximately 15,000 public information systems will be reclassified by importance.
- 13 core systems, including disaster-safety and resident registration, will receive priority for disaster recovery.
- 76 A1-level systems will use dual-operation systems with backups at separate data centers.
SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Yonhap) -- One year after a devastating fire at a key state data center, the interior ministry announced measures Friday to enhance the stability of government information systems. The fire at the National Information Resources Service's (NIRS) data center in Daejeon on Sept. 26 last year damaged servers and crippled key online administrative systems, such as government websites and local community center systems, across the country. It took 95 days to fully normalize these services.
The government plans to strengthen its disaster recovery system to ensure that core administrative information systems directly linked to people's daily lives can be restored within one hour in the event of a disaster. Approximately 15,000 public information systems will be reclassified according to their importance, with priority given to establishing disaster recovery systems for 13 core systems, including the disaster-safety information service and resident registration system, by the first half of next year.
Specifically, 76 systems classified as the highest A1 level will adopt a dual-operation system, maintaining backup systems at separate data centers for one-hour service restoration. The NIRS's Gongju Center will establish a system to replicate 121 systems from the Daejeon Center in real time by the first half of next year. The agency's Gwangju and Daegu centers will also implement data replication systems by 2027.
Hwang Gyu-cheol, head of the interior ministry's AI Government Bureau, stated at a media briefing that disaster recovery systems for data storage will be established for all systems in the NIRS's Daejeon, Daegu, and Gwangju centers by next year, laying the foundation for recovery from large-scale failures by the end of next year.