South Korea: "Internet Crash" Caused by a Lithium Battery Fire

A total of 2 trillion won in market value was lost. A large fire in South Korea has caused widespread network outages. A fire broke out in the SK C&C Banqiao Data Center, Sanpingdong, Bantang District, South City, Gyeonggi do, South Korea, on October 15, at 3:19 p.m. local time. The fire started near the lithium battery rack in the electric room on the third floor of the data center's basement Building A, according to South Korean police. The power supply was housed in five battery racks. One of the lithium batteries exploded during the accident, causing a fire. The automatic fire suppression system then activated and sprayed gas. Following the fire, the data center's power supply was turned off, and the lithium-ion uninterruptible power supply (UPS) was turned on for about 30 minutes. However, the UPS room began to catch fire. To control the fire, the fire department abandoned the use of high-pressure gas and prepared to use water guns instead. The fire department requires SK C&C, the data center operator, to turn off all power supplies to avoid a short circuit. Eight hours later, the fire was put out at about 11:46 p.m. on the 15th. Although the accident did not cause casualties, it was reported that all batteries were burned in the fire. The Korean police said:

We will consider the possibility of fire caused by battery and rack problems or surrounding wire problems, so as to know the exact process of fire.

The effects of the fire go far beyond that. As this data center is jointly built by SK and IBM, it mainly manages the data of SK Telecom, Kakao, Naver, and other core platform operators. Therefore, after the fire, Internet services in South Korea were paralyzed in a large area.

Internet service breakdown

Although the data center restored 90% of the server power supply at 9:00 am the next day, the Korean Internet still suffered huge losses in the majority of the day of power failure. Kakao is the first to bear the brunt. This software is the most widely used mobile communication tool in South Korea, covering instant messaging, mobile payment, online transactions, online maps and taxi taking, and even digital certificates used by citizens when paying taxes, as well as digital vaccine certificates during the COVID-19 epidemic. According to technical commentator Jin Shanxian, this application played a "quasi-government" role during the COVID-19 epidemic. The software has 430-47 million active users in South Korea (the national population of South Korea is about 51 million), and its influence is basically equal to the combination of WeChat and Alipay in China. In the data center where the fire broke out, there were not only 32000 servers of Kakao, but also the main data center of Kakao. At about 3:30 p.m. on the 15th, when Kakao Talk sent or received messages, the "Loading" indication began to appear next to the messages, and the message sending failed. Kakao Talk on the PC can't log in directly. In addition, taxi taking, e-commerce, and other services are also affected by the paralysis of payment functions. At 1:31 in the morning 10 hours after the incident, Kakao recovered some of its functions. It was not until the afternoon of the 16th that message sending and receiving returned to normal. However, a considerable number of servers were still being repaired. This incident has also become the longest failure of Kakao Talk since it was launched 12 years ago. According to analysts, Kakao's revenue in the fourth quarter will suffer a loss of 22 billion won due to the fire. Kakao's share price fell by more than 9% on Monday, and its market value evaporated by 2 trillion won (about 10.1 billion yuan). The shares of subsidiaries KakaoPay and KakaoBank also plunged by more than 8% in early trading. Comprehensive Korean media reported that Kakao's telecommunications services, affected by the fire in SK C&C Banqiao Data Center, were expected to return to normal on the 19th. In addition, the Korean government took this Kakao service paralysis accident as an opportunity to set up a cross-government network security working group in the National Security Room and held a network security inspection meeting under the auspices of Kim Seng Han, the head of the National Security Room. According to Yonhap News Agency, the Kakao server was basically repaired. SK C&C said on the 19th that at about 5:00 a.m. on the same day, the power supply of the data center was fully restored. As a result, Kakao's services are expected to return to normal on the same day. As of 8:00 a.m. on the 19th local time, about 31000 of the 32000 servers had been repaired. As the power supply system and servers of the data center resume normal operation, most of Kakao's telecommunications services have also been restored. According to KBS TV, the vice spokesman of the presidential office released the results of the chief secretary meeting on the establishment of the network security working group at the Longshan presidential office press conference on the 17th. The meeting was chaired by President Yin Xiyue. The deputy spokesman said that senior officials from the Ministry of National Defense, the National Intelligence Agency, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Police Department, and the Military Security Support Command would participate in the network security working group. A person in the President's Office said that the Kakao service paralysis accident not only caused inconvenience to people's lives but also affected national security. Therefore, at the meeting of chief secretaries chaired by Yin Xiyue, it was decided to establish a working group responsible for security inspection. Kakao is not only the national basic communication network but also the paralysis of the private additional communication network will have a serious impact on society. Therefore, relevant departments discussed relevant issues from the national security level. Earlier, Yin Xiyue pointed out that although the Kakao network is operated by private enterprises, it is no different from the national basic communication network and will improve the relevant system..