The Ministry of Public Administration and Security cited the module of the 'network router' as the cause of the unprecedented administrative computer network outage. It is explained as a physical failure, similar to when electricity does not flow when plugged in. However, the equipment was introduced in 2016, and aging was not the cause.

The government has stated that it is difficult to determine the exact cause of the router damage, and the controversy is likely to continue. In addition, the four system failures that occurred since the 17th have all been determined to have different causes, and there are continued criticisms that this is due to poor management by the Information Resources Management Service, an administrative agency that oversees the national administrative network computer system.

Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min presided over the 2nd meeting of the 'Local Government Computer Service Reorganization TF' on Friday the 24th, and held a briefing on the causes of local government computer service failures and future measures on Saturday the 25th. The 2nd TF meeting was attended by private sector experts such as Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety Koh Ki-dong, Professor Song Sang-hyo of Soongsil University, officials from LG, Naver, and Eulji University, as well as officials from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, National Information Resources Service, Korea Intelligence Information Society Agency (NIA), and Korea Local Information Development Institute (KLID). The cause analysis team was composed of 16 external experts and 13 members of the National Information Resources Service.

On that day, Song Sang-hyo, the joint team leader of Soongsil University, said in a briefing, "There was an L4 equipment OS update the day before, but it has not been confirmed that the OS update was the cause of the router failure, and there was an issue with some of the ports in the module that connects the cable to the router equipment in the Daejeon Center connected to the Gwangju Center." In other words, he said, "The problem is physical component damage that occurred in a specific part inside the module, which means that the component itself is not working."

The government explained the delayed results by saying, “It took a long time because of the clear verification process to be sure of the results.” It also added that hacking did not appear to be the cause.

The final cause was found to be a defective port on the 'router', not the 'L4 switch' that was previously identified as the cause. The L4 switch does not connect different networks or provide communication with external networks. A router is a network device that transfers data packets between computer networks, extracting the location of the packets and optimizing the route to forward the data packets to the next device.

It was observed that large packets were lost when transmitting packets, and in particular, 90% of packets larger than 1,500 bytes were lost, making it impossible for the integrated verification server to normally receive packets required for service provision from the router.

According to the briefing that day, the telecommunications equipment maintenance company is the equipment manufacturer CISCO, and the management company is Daeshin Information & Communications.

A network equipment industry expert said, “There is a possibility that there is a problem with the communication components, but it may be difficult to conclude that it is due to just one reason.”

Seo Bo-ram, the director of the Digital Government Office, added that "in the case of the Public Procurement Service, one of the causes appears to be the excessive surge in overseas connections, which increased the load and caused connection delays," and that all government service outages are due to different reasons.

The government announced that it will prepare a mid- to long-term institutional improvement plan to ensure stable operation of the digital government amid ongoing questions about the issue.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that in order to prevent recurrence, it will thoroughly inspect old equipment with possible port defects, establish an integrated monitoring system for related equipment to detect signs of failure in advance, and prepare a mid- to long-term institutional improvement plan to ensure stable operation of the digital government.

To this end, he stated, “We will improve the way we promote public information technology projects, and make the public information technology project cost realistic by rapidly replacing hardware and software that have passed their service life and have high potential risks, and by encouraging the participation of companies with high technological capabilities.”

In addition, we will comprehensively review the operation method of the National Information Resources Service.We will comprehensively review the technical structure of the system that has moved into the center, including the duplication, recovery system, and network configuration, and establish improvement measures for the organization structure and personnel operation through organizational diagnosis.

Meanwhile, on the 25th in Busan, Minister Lee held the launch ceremony of the 'Global DPG Alliance' with the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, etc.