In the midst of the IT crisis, the Ministry of Science and ICT is launching a thorough digital disaster management to prevent the recurrence of system failures. Starting in 2025, Coupang, Kakao, and Equinix will be additionally designated as businesses subject to disaster management obligations.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held the 3rd 2024 Telecommunications Disaster Management Deliberation Committee on the 23rd. In accordance with the revised 'Framework Act on Broadcasting and Communications Development' following the Pangyo Data Center fire, 11 basic telecommunications service providers including SKT, KT, 7 value-added telecommunications service providers including Naver and Kakao, and 8 data center operators including SK C&C are being subject to disaster management obligations for the first time starting this year.

On the 19th, the committee received a report on the ‘Causes of Global IT System Failures and Damage Status’ in order to prepare countermeasures for the IT disaster that occurred worldwide. In addition, the report on the ‘Additional Designation of Major Disaster Management Obligations’ and the ‘2025 Communication Disaster Management Basic Plan Establishment Guidelines’ were deliberated and decided.

In order to prevent the recurrence of IT disasters and similar failures, various measures were proposed, including: △establishing a gradual distribution system, △conducting sufficient preliminary tests before applying to the actual environment, and △establishing a central management control system.

According to the 'Additional Designation of Major Disaster Management Obligation Operators (Proposal)', operators who meet the statutory disaster management obligation operator designation requirements have been added. The criteria for value-added telecommunications operators are 10 million or more daily domestic users or 2% or more of daily domestic traffic volume. The criteria for data center operators are data center computer room floor area of 22,500 square meters or more or power supply facility capacity of 40 megawatts or more. At the same time, sales of 10 billion won or more.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has additionally designated Coupang in the value-added telecommunications sector, and Kakao and Equinix in the data center sector. These companies will be subject to disaster management obligations starting in 2025.

Equinix is a digital infrastructure company that provides colocation services, providing IT infrastructure that allows companies to directly manage all their data and satisfy AI workflows in their data centers. It is continuously increasing its data center capacity, including SL4, which opened in January of this year.

The value-added telecommunications business is divided into digital services including SNS, messengers, and content, and digital infrastructure including app markets and clouds. Dual service providers account for 83.2%.

According to the '2023 Value-added Telecommunications Business Survey Results Announcement' announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 19th, the average monthly active users of the top operators by type (based on representative services, 3-month average) are △Content 37.187 million △App Market 23.762 million △Communication 20.812 million △Service 16.389 million △Goods 13.471 million △New Types 1.804 million △Data/AI 934,000.

Value-added telecommunications business sales amounted to 328.5 trillion won, of which digital platform sales amounted to 144.4 trillion won.

Among the responding companies, including dual platform operators, 43.4% of companies were found to be utilizing new digital technologies. The main technologies are big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud. They are adopting methods such as in-house research and development, outsourcing to external specialists, and technology partnerships with other companies.

As consumers' demand for digital platforms increases, it is expected that the second IT crisis can be responded to by expanding the target businesses subject to disaster management obligations.

Disaster management obligation business operators are required to prepare and submit a communications disaster management plan. Periodic telecommunications service providers are required to establish emergency communication plans, such as securing detour routes in the event of an international submarine communications cable failure, for disaster management obligation operators who lease or own international submarine communications cables, and to report on cable operation status, such as capacity and number of lines.

In the value-added telecommunications sector, these include: △Applying prior verification in a mock test environment when introducing or updating third-party products such as security SW; △Recommendation for multiplexing of major services based on two or more clouds rather than a single cloud.
In the data center sector, these include: △ strengthening the pre-detection system for early detection of battery fires; △ specifying alternative measures in management plans in cases where immediate application of strengthened disaster management obligations is difficult due to difficulties in changing the physical structure of key facilities.

Vice Minister Kang Do-hyun said, “The global digital crisis that occurred last week has once again reminded us of the importance of providing stable digital services and the safe digital infrastructure that supports them,” adding, “The Ministry of Science and ICT will do its best to establish a digital disaster management system that the public can trust.”