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Datacenter fire takes 647 South Korean government services offline. PLUS: US court grounds China’s DJI; India requires 2FA for most payments; Great Firewall busters launch VPN; and more!. Asia In Brief Over 600 e-government services operated by South Korea’s government are offline after a datacenter fire disrupted operations. The fire struck on Friday night at a datacenter operated by South Korea’s National Information Resources Service. Korean media report that technicians replacing a lithium-ion battery inadvertently sparked a blaze. As is often the case with battery fires, firefighters struggled to control the blaze, which reached 234 batteries. On Saturday, Korea’s government used the blog it hosts at local cloud service Naver to post a list of phone numbers citizens can use to contact government departments, because the fire also took out government email. By Sunday, government X accounts started to post advice on how to access services. Late on Sunday night South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it had restored 30 services, leaving 617 offline. This incident will doubtless spawn innumerable social media posts asking why South Korea’s government is so reliant on a single datacenter. One ray of hope is that NIRS – an entity created to run e-government services and the infrastructure to power it – operates a second datacenter. NIRS is also a user of VMware Cloud Foundation, Virtzilla’s flagship private cloud package, so perhaps the agency will be able to swiftly restore virtual infrastructure. US court grounds DJI Drone-maker DJI has lost the lawsuit it filed last year in which it sought to have the USA remove it from a list of companies affiliated with the Chinese military. While the listing didn’t mean DJI could not sell into the US market, it didn’t help and the company wanted to clear its name by arguing it is not affiliated with China’s armed forces and by pointing out it does not allow military use of its drones. US District Judge Paul L Friedman felt the latter argument was irrelevant, that DJI’s claims it was unfairly prohibited from competing were not valid, and that the drone-maker’s involvement with China’s National Enterprise Technology Center means it contributes to the nation’s defense industrial base. US authorities are currently considering whether to ban DJI from selling drones on national security grounds. India wants 2FA for all digital payments India’s Reserve Bank last week decided that digital payments made in the country must use two-factor authentication by April 1st,2026. The rule applies to Banks and other types of payment providers, with exemptions for low-value in-person transactions and recurring payments other than the first transaction in a series. The new rule requires use of one-time passwords (OTPs) but doesn’t mandate a specific form of 2FA. That stance leaves text messages as an allowable means for distribution of OTPs, an interesting choice given it is known to be an insecure method of distributing OTPs and SMS fraud is a big problem in India. Great Firewall busters release a VPN Censorship-fighting organization GreatFire.org, which monitors and works to stymie China’s Great Firewall, last week launched a virtual private network it says can “withstand the world’s harshest censorship environments.” The GreatFire VPN apparently uses “four distinct circumvention methods” and offers a split-tunneling feature that allows users to decide which apps go through the VPN and which connect directly. Users need not register to use the VPN, which can connect to “over 100” servers worldwide. The org says the VPN works “even in the most restrictive regions.” Freedom comes at a price … after a free 30-day trial, GreatFire requires payment to continue using the VPN. Android users can get the VPN now on Google Play or as a direct .APK download. iOS users need to visit the Apple Store. A desktop version is in the works. APNIC wants to extend board posts The Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), the regional internet registry for 56 economies in the Asia-Pacific, last week announced it plans to pursue a plan to extend the term served by members of its executive council (EC) serve from two to three years. APNIC’s members elect EC members, who are the organization’s equivalent of directors. The registry continues to debate whether EC members should be subject to term limits.