Archive · 29 Sep 2025
South Korea Grapples with Digital Service Outage After Data Center Fire
Imagine that many of South Korea's online services, like websites for government things, suddenly stopped working.
This happened because of a fire at a place that stores important computer servers.
The fire may have started because of a battery that exploded while it was being checked.
This caused a big problem, as people couldn't access important online services.
The government is working to fix things, but it's taking time.
The president is not happy that something like this happened and wants to prevent it from happening again.
The government should have been better prepared for this.
A fire at a data center caused widespread disruption to South Korean government digital services.
The fire broke out during routine maintenance in a server room.
Organizations affected included Korea Customs, the National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency.
The battery, which may have caused the fire, was manufactured by LG Energy Solution.
President Lee Jae Myung ordered improved security for government systems.
- Who
- South Korean government and public
- What
- A fire at a data center caused widespread disruption to government digital services.
- When
- The fire occurred on Friday during routine maintenance; services remained offline through Monday.
- Where
- Daejeon, South Korea, at the National Information Resources Service.
- Why
- The fire, possibly caused by an exploding battery, damaged servers and caused outages, exposing vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure.
- Affected Services
- Hundreds of government services including Korea Customs, National Police Agency, and National Fire Agency
- Cause of Fire
- Battery explosion during routine maintenance
- Battery Manufacturer
- LG Energy Solution
- Location of Fire
- State-run National Information Resources Service, Daejeon
- Restored Services (as of Monday)
- 62 of 647 systems
- President's Response
- Ordered improvements in security, proposed budgets for emergency systems
- Battery Warranty
- Expired in 2023