Overhead

Overhead refers to the load placed upon a computer or system. For example, if a system, which usually has 10 persons processing transactions needs to accommodate 50, the overhead on the system has increased. Likewise, encrypting and decrypting data will increase a system's overhead and reduce the resources available for other processes during the encrypt/decrypt cycle.

Take care not to increase the overheads on your systems without due consideration of the impact this may have. Your systems may well have adequate capacity to absorb the extra load; but there again, they may not, and this may affect your Information Security.