The unprecedented paralysis of the government's administrative computer network, the situation of digital disaster..."Preview of bigger accidents ahead"

The government's administrative computer network failure, which occurred on the 17th, has been normalized three days after the outbreak, but public criticism is flooding toward the government, which still cannot find a direct cause of the failure. In particular, amid criticism that the response of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which is the main ministry, was poor, experts diagnosed the situation as a "digital disaster situation" and pointed out that it should have taken separate responses sequentially, but the problem has grown further due to complex obstacles while dealing with various things at the same time. He also advised that upgrades are urgent, such as a plan to immediately switch to offline administration when there is a problem online.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on the 20th, Saeol, an administrative computer network used by local government officials across the country, was paralyzed at 8:40 a.m. on the 17th. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 17th, "You can use government 24 for various certificates," but by 2 p.m. on the 18th, the situation escalated further as the representative government online civil complaint platform "Government 24" was also paralyzed.

It is the first time that the administrative computer network has been paralyzed for a long time since the e-government was launched in November 2002, and citizens suffered great inconvenience due to the suspension of civil affairs directly related to their daily lives, such as not being able to take off documents proving seal required for real estate contracts or vehicle transfer.

Critics say that the government failed to restore the system on the day of the incident and that it was slow to determine the cause. The Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced the cause of the paralysis only 53 hours later on the afternoon of the 19th. Some network equipment abnormalities in the public official certification (GPKI) system of the administrative computer network were cited as the cause of the latest incident. They say that the L4 switch, which serves to speed up traffic, did not work properly. However, it has yet to provide a clear explanation as to why the equipment malfunction occurred and why "duplexing work" such as a backup system in case of errors did not work.

Critics point out that the government spent a huge budget to implement e-government, but its response to the "digital disaster situation" was poor. This year alone, the budget spent on the Information Resource Management Institute, the national agency of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which manages the servers of Saeol and Government 24, which are in question this time amounted to a whopping 460 billion won. According to the "2024 Budget Project Explanation Data," the size of next year's budget was set at around 540 billion won, a 17% (79 billion won) increase from this year. However, this is the third state-managed administrative network paralysis this year after the court computer network paralysis in March and the Education Administration Information System (NEIS) error in June.

Kim Hyung-joong, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security, said, "The fact that the cause is still not properly identified and the system does not work for three days is a sign of bigger accidents to come." "We have to patch the new system first, then upgrade the network next time if there is no problem, and if there is no problem, we have to respond sequentially by upgrading the authentication server. I don't know why, but I don't know why, but I think the problem has grown bigger as it became a complex obstacle by dealing with various things at the same time."

Kwon Heon-young, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Information Protection, said, "The loss of the administrative network should be seen as a digital disaster. In the end, the service is all connected, and we have protected the core, which we have set as a key to protect, but we need to comprehensively check whether there are any areas that could cause problems."

Professor Kwon also said, "Rather than struggling to provide uninterrupted services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for government services, it is necessary to stop the service, do it stably, and then review how to test it and resume the service." He added, "As all kinds of civil service services were carried out online, there was a problem of having to wait for all offline services. It is necessary to check and upgrade various procedures, including a transition plan that allows offline administration to quickly return when there is a problem online."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it will take measures to ensure that no citizens are disadvantaged by the paralysis of the administrative computer network. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will extend the payment deadline for public complaints such as payments and reports processed at community centers to the point when the disability is restored and payment can be made. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety also decided to apply for civil complaints that must be handled immediately, such as the fixed date, by hand first at the civil service office and then retroactively process them as of the 20th.

Date: 2023-11-21

Reporter: 서화목