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| The interior of Kakao's newly opened Pangyo office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap |
Kakao triggers distrust over financial companies' IT systems
By Yi Whan-woo
Commercial banks are underlining their IT security measures aimed at protecting customers' data and ensuring undisrupted services, in the wake of the latest service malfunction suffered by the country's two major tech firms ― Kakao and Naver.
The malfunction was caused by a fire on Saturday at an SK C&C data center that Kakao and Naver had been outsourcing.
The disaster in the highly connected society has sparked concerns whether it is safe to rely solely on big tech firms that are increasingly responsible for a wide range of services related to daily activities, such as instant messaging, music streaming, taxi-hailing, shopping and mobile payment.
In the case of Kakao, it also has advanced into mobile banking.
Users of Kakao services suffered greater inconveniences than users of Naver, which has a more robust backup system with resources distributed to multiple data centers.
Banks, both online and offline, are now disclosing that they operate at least two data centers, with one serving as a backup, in the event of any contingencies.
Many of the banks manage their own data centers directly instead of outsourcing them.
"We would like to point out what we have been doing over the years, concerning a need to enhance IT safety measures in the aftermath of the Kakao fiasco," a KB Kookmin Bank public relations staffer told The Korea Times, Tuesday.
The staffer noted the lender has its main data center in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, and two backup centers ― one in Seoul's Yeouido and the other in an undisclosed location. The data from Gimpo is copied and transferred in real time to the Yeouido data center, which can take over if the Gimpo one suffers a malfunction. The location and other details on the third data center are not revealed for security reasons.
"In addition, we hold emergency drills against disasters at least once a year," the staffer said.
Other major offline lenders have been taking similar measures as practiced by KB Kookmin Bank.
Shinhan Bank runs three data centers ― the main one in Jukjeon-dong in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and two backups ― one in Ilsan in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and the other in an undisclosed location.
Hana Bank has two data centers in Incheon's Cheongna International City and Bundang District in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
Woori Bank has two ― one in Sangam-dong in western Seoul and the other in Bundang.
The four banks separately said they will keep up with their ongoing security efforts while taking the Kakao case as a lesson.
KakaoBank, the lending arm of Kakao, suffered less damage than other affiliates as its main data center is outsourced in an area separate from the site of the fire.
The lender's main data center is outsourced to IT service provider LG CNS' office in Sangam-dong.
It has two backup centers that are outsourced to a KT office in Bundang and an LG CNS office in Busan.
Its services are fully normalized but still some of its clients closed their accounts out of apparent concerns.
Against this backdrop, KakaoBank noted it will "continue to make efforts to safeguard customers' assets and privacy."
Rival online lender K Bank has three data centers in Seoul and the greater Seoul area, while Toss Bank has two.
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