Resource exhaustion is the correct term for this kind of attack because it specifically refers to the depletion of system resources to the point where the system cannot perform its intended functions. It is a common goal of denial-of-service attacks to render a service unavailable by overwhelming it with requests, thus exhausting resources such as bandwidth, memory, or processing power. The incorrect answers are related terms but do not precisely describe the scenario in the question. 'Data corruption' implies the alteration or destruction of data, while 'credential harvesting' refers to the collection of user credentials, typically for unauthorized access. 'Amplification attack' is a type of DDoS attack that increases the volume of traffic sent to a victim, leading to resource exhaustion, but the term itself does not describe the outcome of the attack.