South Korea is reeling from a catastrophic data loss after a fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS)data center in Daejeon destroyed an estimated 858 terabytes of government information on September 26. The incident, reportedly triggered by a battery malfunction, disrupted key digital services and left several ministries struggling to function.
The most severe damage affected the G-Drive, a government-operated cloud system used by officials to store documents and files. Each employee was allocated 30GB of space, but investigators have confirmed that no backup system existedfor the drive—its vast capacity made redundancy unfeasible. Of the 96 systems damaged in the fire, the G-Drive is the only one without recoverable data, resulting in near-total loss for departments that relied on it for daily operations.
“The G-Drive couldn’t have a backup system due to its large capacity,” an official told The Chosun. As a result, entire divisions have been forced into operational standstills.
So far, only 17.8% of the 647 affected networks have been restored, and officials estimate that full recovery may take at least a month.
Tragedy struck further when a 56-year-old senior officer overseeing the data recovery efforts died by suicide on October 3, reportedly due to immense work pressure. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.
Meanwhile, four individuals have been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into possible professional negligence, as the government faces one of its worst data infrastructure crises in history.
