Cyber Risk Compendium

Resource shortage

BSI ID: G 0.27

If the resources available in a particular area are insufficient, this can lead to bottlenecks in the supply of these resources, resulting in overloads and failures. Depending on the type of resources affected, a small event, the occurrence of which was also predictable, can ultimately impair a large number of business processes. Resource shortages can occur in IT operations and communication links, but also in other areas of an institution.

If insufficient human, time and financial resources are made available for certain tasks, this can have a variety of negative effects. For example, the roles required in projects may not be filled by suitable people. If operating resources such as hardware or software are no longer sufficient to meet requirements, specialist tasks may not be performed successfully. Personnel, time, financial, technical and other shortages in normal operations can often be compensated for over a limited period of time. However, under high time pressure, for example in emergency situations, they become all the more apparent. Resources can also be deliberately overloaded if someone intentionally generates an intensive demand for a resource, thereby causing an intensive and prolonged disruption of the resource, see also Denial of service.

Examples:

  • Overloaded electrical cables heat up, which can lead to smouldering fires if they are laid unfavourably.

  • If new applications with higher bandwidth requirements than those taken into account at the time of planning are operated on the network, this can lead to a loss of availability of the entire network if the network infrastructure cannot be scaled sufficiently.

  • If administrators only sporadically check the log files of the IT systems they maintain due to overload, attacks may not be detected in a timely manner.

  • Web servers can become so overloaded by a high volume of simultaneous requests that regular access to data becomes almost impossible.

  • If a company is in insolvency proceedings, it may not have the money to pay for urgently needed spare parts or to pay important service providers.