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| Inspectors from the fire and police departments in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, enter SK C&C's Pangyo data center in Bundang District, Sunday, to investigate the site of a fire that broke out at the facility a day before, damaging servers of Kakao and Naver. Yonhap |
President says network disruptions can pose grave threat to national security
By Ko Dong-hwan
A software programmer in Seoul on Saturday suddenly began having trouble sending image and video files to his client through his KakaoTalk smartphone app. The simple function the expert used frequently in his daily professional life had always been reliable, until about 3 p.m. that day when the messenger app without warning was unable to carry out the simplest of tasks.
The situation was worse with his laptop computer that was installed with the app's PC version. The program didn't even allow him to log in, only displaying a dialogue box message that attributed the error to a firewall blocking access. For a person who preferred chatting with his wife and friends on KakaoTalk's desktop version instead of his smartphone, it was an unforeseen inconvenience.
It was mayhem for tens of millions of Kakao users within and outside Korea, who had their daily lives derailed throughout the weekend. Its effects were felt by the public, who have largely come to rely on the company's major online services, which have become increasingly popular over the last decade.
The incident's extensive impact throughout the country prompted President Yoon Suk-yeol to issue a grim warning that disruption to a key network infrastructure service like the latest incident not only causes significant inconvenience to the public but also a fatal blow to national security.
"In a hyper-connected society, data telecommunication infrastructure is directly related to national security and citizens' lives," presidential spokesperson Kim Eun-hye quoted Yoon as saying at the presidential office on Sunday. "Leading IT countries and global enterprises have mentioned the importance of a 'flexible recovery' when it comes to operating online platforms. It is a corporation's duty and promise to society."
Yoon also issued an apology to the public on Sunday for the inconvenience. On Saturday, Yoon ordered Science and ICT Minister Lee Jong-ho to chair a committee overseeing the situation.
"We feel a grave responsibility for the shutdown of the digital services of Kakao and Naver," said Kim.
As well as pinpointing the incident's causes and policies to prevent similar future incidents, Yoon called for the installation of twin data centers to create more resilient systems.
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| KakaoT, one of Kakao's popular smartphone-based services which allows users to call taxis, shut down Saturday following a fire at the company's data center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Newsis |
Naver also experienced a partial disruption to some of its services, including Shopping Live, according to Yonhap. But the country's largest online portal operator was able to recover more quickly from the Pangyo fire than its competitor, due to the continued functioning of its main data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. The comparable responses by the two companies prompted some to criticize Kakao for negligence in its failure to avoid the crisis and recover quickly.
As well as inconveniencing its users, the disruption also swept through businesses that rely heavily on Kakao's services. Because of Kakao's deep-rooted presence in a broad range of online services in the country, many companies allowed customers to use their Kakao IDs to access their services. But as the disruption locked them out of their accounts, this reliance appears to have backfired.
SK Rental Car, Home Plus, Market Kurly, Olive Young and Starbucks all released notices on Sunday about shutdowns of some of their services using Kakao features for billing transactions or gift delivery due to the incident.
The near-blackout of Kakao services began on Saturday at around 3:30 p.m. following a blaze at SK C&C's Pangyo building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where the company's data center is housed. Some 10 hours after the incident, the app's programs had recovered partially.
As of Sunday afternoon, half of Kakao's 32,000 servers in the burnt building were recovered, but a full resumption of services isn't expected any time soon because of the seriousness of the damage, according to the company's Vice President Yang Hyun-seo who visited the site on Sunday. "The simultaneous shutdown of 32,000 servers rarely occurs in the IT industry," Yang said.
Logging in and chatting on KakaoTalk's desktop platform was recovered on Sunday morning. However, transferring images and videos is still out of service. The company on Sunday marked its longest out-of-service period since its establishment.
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