Ministry of Science and ICT: "Platforms Above a Certain Scale and Closely Related to Public Life to Be Included in Disaster Management System"

'Emergency Inspection Meeting on Service Stability of Domestic Value-Added Telecom Operators' Held

Park Yoon-kyu, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, is speaking at the emergency inspection meeting on the stability of value-added telecommunications service providers held on the 21st at the Digital Platform Government Committee conference room in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The government is considering including value-added telecommunications service providers of a certain scale, which are closely related to the daily lives of the public, in the broadcasting and telecommunications disaster management system to prepare for disaster situations.

On the 21st, the Ministry of Science and ICT held an "Emergency Inspection Meeting on the Stability of Domestic Value-Added Telecommunications Service Providers" chaired by Second Vice Minister Park Yoon-kyu.

The meeting was held to discuss measures to prepare for emergencies such as value-added telecommunications service server failures, triggered by the Kakao service disruption caused by the fire at the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center on the 15th. Participants included Google, Netflix, Meta Platforms, Woowa Brothers, Danggeun Market, Amazon AWS, and GS Neotek.

In his opening remarks, Vice Minister Park said, "This incident was an opportunity to realize how much digital services affect the lives of the people and how important the social responsibility of digital service operators is. I hope everyone here painfully recognizes that it took nearly a week to normalize the service."

He added, "The Ministry of Science and ICT believes that creating an environment where digital services can be provided stably is a prerequisite for becoming a global model country for digital innovation. We will make every effort to devise technical and institutional improvement measures while working intensively with the industry and experts to prevent such unfortunate incidents from recurring."

Jeong Chang-rim, Director General of the Telecommunications Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Facilities-based telecommunications service providers must take various measures under the broadcasting and telecommunications disaster management system. However, value-added telecommunications service providers are not subject to this. We will review ways to prepare various measures through the broadcasting and telecommunications disaster management system for businesses closely related to the daily lives of the public."

Following this incident, bills regulating value-added telecommunications service providers and Internet Data Center (IDC) operators have been proposed. The Ministry of Science and ICT is also considering amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act. Concerns have been raised about potential excessive regulation through overlapping measures. Director Jeong said, "We plan to present the final plan by the end of the year. We will review various methods to come up with the best solution. Ultimately, since this is a disaster accident, how to manage the broadcasting and telecommunications disaster management system is important."

He also stated that the scale of the business and the nature of the service will be taken into account. Director Jeong said, "There are concerns about increased regulation if the system is improved and value-added telecommunications service providers are included in the broadcasting and telecommunications disaster management system. However, we are not reviewing all providers. We are only considering those of a certain scale and those closely related to the daily lives of the public, and I explained this to the attendees."

Regarding the meeting, Director Jeong said, "We heard various opinions on the status of distribution, redundancy, and diversification by provider, as well as training for disaster preparedness. The participating providers are generally well prepared through distribution, redundancy, and diversification, and are enhancing disaster preparedness training."

He also shared disaster prevention measures of overseas providers. Director Jeong explained, "Google, Netflix, and Meta shared several reference cases, but ultimately they operate in a distributed manner and prepare through frequent simulation drills."

Additionally, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it will establish a "Digital Crisis Management Headquarters (tentative name)" to operate continuously and create a full-cycle inspection and management system for disaster prevention, training, response, and recovery of digital infrastructure and services. This plan has been reported to the Presidential Office, and the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters will focus on identifying the cause of the incident and preparing specific countermeasures accordingly.

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