T 5.105 Disruption of archive system services

The services of an electronic archive consist of the following basic functions:

• collection and indexing of the documents to be archived,
• management and storage of the documents,
• searching and finding archived documents,
• visualisation and reproduction of the documents, as well as
• maintenance and administration of the archive system.

If the services of an archive system are disrupted, damage may occur, as explained by the following examples:

• If indexing archived data is prevented or disturbed, e.g. by specifying incorrect context data, the consequence may be that data cannot be found at all or only with considerable effort at a later point in time.

• If archiving new data is prevented or disturbed, e.g. if the network connection of the archive system is blocked by a denial-of-service attack, this may result in the creation of a significant backlog not protected by any backup depending on the data volume. Should the system fail in this case, the loss of those documents not yet archived would have to be taken into account. If an archive system not generating any archive confirmation visible for the user is selected, there is the risk that possible losses of data will remain undetected at first. If, on the other hand, a system providing archive confirmation is used, the absence of the confirmation may also delay subsequent business operations or administrative procedures.

• If the reproduction of archived data is prevented, disturbed, or delayed, this may result in the inability to provide the required documents on schedule, the consequence being economic damage or legal disadvantages.

• If the administration of the archive system is impaired or delayed, e.g. by overloading of the personnel with queries, it may happen that persons who should be blocked from accessing the system continue to have access to the archive and upload or retrieve documents in an unauthorised manner.
• The impairment of the administration may also cause damage if the maintenance of the archive system is impaired or delayed by the aforementioned. This may possibly result in the inability to install software updates in a timely manner or to test these to the sufficient extent.