South Korean government learns the importance of backups the hard way after catastrophic fire — 858 terabytes of data goes up in magic smoke

A catastrophic fire at a South Korean government datacenter resulted in the loss of 858 terabytes of data, with no backups available. The fire, caused by a battery malfunction, affected 96 government systems, including critical services like email and emergency response. The G-Drive system, a document sharing platform, lacked backups due to its large capacity, leading to significant data loss. Recovery efforts are ongoing, with only 17.8% of services restored as of early October. Tragically, one government worker overseeing data recovery took his own life, and four individuals have been arrested in connection with the fire.