Failure in network router cause of dayslong disruption of gov't service network

▲ Officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety hold a press conference on the cause of the government network failure in Seoul on Nov. 25, 2023. (Yonhap)

govt admin service-cause

Failure in network router cause of dayslong disruption of gov't service network

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government said Saturday a failure in a network device was attributable to the recent service disruption in the administrative network, but it has found no signs of hacking.

The Saeol administrative network, a system used by public workers to access government-approved documents, and the widely used online Government 24 portal broke down on Nov. 17 due to a suspected issue with equipment failure.

The government restored the administrative network last Sunday after massive delays and disruptions occurred to both offline and online issuances of civil documents, such as resident registration papers, for two days.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the router, a networking device, failed to send massive data through the network, resulting in the loss of data packets and a subsequent service outage

"The delay continued, making it impossible to perform its tasks normally," Prof. Song Sang-hyo, who led the ministry's task force on the issue, said in a press conference.

He noted the government has found no signs of hacking as the cause of the disruption.

The ministry said it will look at the problems one by one and come up with fundamental and effective remedial measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

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