The government said on Saturday that a defect in a network device was the cause of the recent massive disruption in the administrative computer network.

Vice Interior Minister Ko Ki-dong and Professor Song Sang-hyo, the joint chiefs of a related task force, made the announcement during a press briefing in Seoul.

Song said that when the router, a networking device, sent massive data through the network, the loss of data packets was observed, resulting in a service outage.

The task force on reforming the administrative computer network said that it previously blamed the L4 switch and a software problem for the outage, but those were found not to be responsible for the network paralysis.

Song said that the task force failed to find any other problems except the faulty router equipment, adding that it took a long time to announce the cause because they had to carry out a comprehensive review and verification process.

The task force added that it has found no signs of hacking.

The vice minister said it will look at the problems one by one and come up with fundamental and effective remedial measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident.