Preventing Recurrence of 'Kakao Outage'... Proposal to Amend the Basic Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development

Data Centers Also Included in Government Disaster Plans

Cho Seung-rae, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Cho Seung-rae's Office

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] Measures to prevent the recurrence of the SK C&C Pangyo data center fire and the Kakao outage incident are being promoted.

On the 17th, Cho Seung-rae, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that he has taken the lead in proposing a revision to the "Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development" to include major online services and data centers such as Kakao, Naver, and SK C&C in the national disaster management system.

On the 15th, due to the fire at the SK Pangyo data center, major Kakao services such as KakaoTalk, KakaoMap, and KakaoTaxi, as well as key Naver services like Naver Shopping and news comments, were interrupted or experienced errors, causing inconvenience to the entire nation.

The main content of the amendment is to require the Ministry of Science and ICT to include information about broadcasting and communication services of data center operators and value-added communication service providers when establishing and implementing the basic broadcasting and communication disaster management plan.

The basic plan is a plan established by the Ministry of Science and ICT and others to prevent disasters, accidents, physical or functional defects related to broadcasting and communication services, and to promptly manage and recover from broadcasting and communication disasters. Currently, it applies to period telecommunication service providers, terrestrial broadcasters, and general programming and news broadcasting channel usage providers (PP).

If data centers and major online services are included in the government's disaster management plan, systematic preparation and prompt management and recovery measures for disasters will be established, which is expected to prevent unprecedented incidents like the Kakao outage crisis.

Assemblyman Cho Seung-rae said, "Due to the data center fire, many online services directly connected to the daily lives of the people went down, causing an unprecedented situation where daily life came to a halt," and added, "We must reorganize the national disaster management system and prepare measures for major services to ensure that such incidents never happen again."

He also stated, "Although the public experienced a situation close to a disaster, the government did not even send disaster alerts and remained inactive," and emphasized, "We must actively support the swift resolution of the outage incident and also strive to establish fundamental measures to prevent recurrence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.