Nationwide Internet Outage in South Korea Restored After 5 Hours

A nationwide internet outage occurred in South Korea on the 5th, affecting users from 4:57 PM to 9:58 PM. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that the issue has been resolved after 5 hours.

The Ministry of Science and ICT is currently investigating the cause of the internet access failure. According to their initial findings, the outage occurred due to excessive internet traffic during the firewall replacement work of a security software company, which caused some wireless routers to malfunction.

It is reported that less than 100,000 wireless AP devices, which were the cause of the malfunction, are distributed domestically. The three telecommunication companies, KT, SK Broadband, and LG U+, are receiving reports of outages through their respective websites and customer centers.

KT and SK Broadband, which used the problematic wireless AP, have announced that they have recovered from the outage and requested that users turn the wireless AP power off and on again if the outage persists. LG U+ has provided guidance to users who have experienced connection problems with private routers to reset their private routers and, if they are unable to recover, to upgrade to the latest software.

SK Broadband and KT are considering compensation plans, such as rate reductions, after determining the exact extent of the damage. However, LG U+ is not providing compensation since the failure occurred in a private router that the customer purchased directly.

The Ministry of Science and ICT is monitoring the situation by operating a 24-hour emergency contact system with telecommunications companies and will thoroughly investigate the cause of this failure with experts to prevent similar cases from recurring.