South Korean government's 858TB data destroyed in fire

ISTANBUL

South Korea's government lost up to 858 terabytes of data after a massive blaze devasted a data center in the central city of Daejeon last month, according to the Data Center Dynamics.

The fire started at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) after a lithium-ion battery exploded in a computer room at fifth floor on Sept. 26.

The uninterruptible power supply battery exploded while workers were disconnecting it to relocate it to the basement.

The fire rendered several government web services unavailable.

The Interior and Safety Ministry announced on Thursday that a total of 709 public institution online systems were shut down due to the fire, a significant increase from the originally reported 96.

Only 231, or 32.5%, of the damaged systems were restored by Friday, according to South Korean news outlet Chosun Biz.

Data belonging to about 125,000 government officials was also lost.

NIRS manages about 1,600 government services in total, and operates its headquarters in Daejeon, with additional sites in Gwangju and Daegu.

One of the destroyed services includes the “G-Drive,” a work cloud and online storage system used by central government officials.

“The G-Drive couldn’t have a backup system due to its large capacity,” an unnamed official told The Chosun. “The remaining 95 systems have backup data in online or offline forms.”

Meanwhile, a government worker managing the efforts on data center recovery died after jumping from a building.

The 56-year-old man was found in cardiac arrest near the central building at the government complex in Sejong City on Oct. 3, according to the local media outlet The Dong-A Ilbo.

The ministry said he was not involved in the police investigation into the fire, but that the circumstances around his death, including whether overwork was a contributing factor, are being investigated.