SCP-2718 — SCP-2718 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-2718 Catastrophic ~ medium confidence

SCP-2718

Expected annual

$22.0M

One-time setup

$282.7M

Annual recurring

$19.5M

Personnel

Initial one-time containment and contingency buildout is dominated by a large emergency fund and amnestic stockpile; recurring yearly costs are driven by staff wages, continuous monitoring, rapid-response teams, and a long-term escalation/watch fund.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $282.7M

Potential Catastrophic Last Resort Fund $250.0M

[#29] Large emergency fund for worst-case, cross-national operations (platform shutdowns, emergency amnestic release, massive PR/legal action).

Amnestic Stockpile $10.0M

[#12] Initial procurement and stockpile for ~5,000 doses (production, secure storage, administration equipment).

Facilities $6.0M

[#1] Hardened, access-controlled containment wing including secure evidence lockers and on-site incinerator.

Replacement Of Contaminated Hardware $6.0M

[#20] Replacement budget for large-scale contaminated hardware (example: 10,000 devices).

International Counter Proliferation Ops $3.0M

[#25] Covert/coordinated operations to remove copies in inaccessible jurisdictions (contingent ops).

Insurance And Indemnity Reserve $2.0M

[#21] One-time reserve for legal defense, settlements and indemnity (separate from recurring premiums).

Research Non Pharma Countermeasures $1.5M

[#26] Initial R&D program for safe-display protocols, filtered viewers, and cognitive immunization tooling.

Forensic Sweep $1.0M

[#8] One-off global forensic discovery & internet sweep to locate public instances and backups.

Data Loss And Business Continuity Reserve $1.0M

[#22] Contingency fund for productivity loss and business continuity during takedowns.

Legal Initial $500K

[#9] Initial legal/host takedown and settlement budget for removals and negotiations.

Public Cover Pr And Misinformation Budget $500K

[#16] One-off major PR/cover campaign and retainers to mask takedowns.

Equipment $400K

[#2] Air-gapped analysis server cluster (hardware + installation).

Initial Research And Lab Setup $300K

[#13] Onsite med bay setup and initial research/lab readiness.

Data Archival Destruction $250K

[#19] Logistics campaign to locate and destroy third-party physical backups/tapes.

Secure Communications Setup $150K

[#15] Setup of secure telephony, classified email and cover infrastructure.

Secure Disposal Hardware $125K

[#3] Purchase of shredders/degaussers/high-temp incinerators for physical media remediation.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $19.5M/yr

Long Term Watch And Escalation Fund $5.0M/yr

[#23] Ongoing contingency reserve for unexpected re-emergence, new mirror mitigation, and escalation.

Staff Wages $4.2M/yr

[#4] Salaries for specialized memetics researchers, containment specialists, senior analysts and core on-site staff.

Logistics And Transport $2.0M/yr

[#11] Rapid response field teams maintenance (on-call teams, deployments, transport, lodging, overtime).

Research And Monitoring $1.2M/yr

[#10] Ongoing global monitoring & detection platform tooling and associated staff effort (automated scanners, NLP, social trackers).

It And Cybersecurity $1.2M/yr

[#6] Incident response, forensics, endpoint remediation tooling and devops to enforce network-level mitigations.

Security Staffing $1.0M/yr

[#5] Armed security, vetting officers, 24/7 coverage and training.

Amnestic Resupply $1.0M/yr

[#12] Ongoing procurement, clinical oversight, and resupply costs per-dose after initial stockpile usage.

Endpoint Remediation $700K/yr

[#7] Remediation waves for infected workstations (wiping, reimaging, drive replacement, licenses).

Medical And Psychiatric Care $600K/yr

[#13] Ongoing medical care, long-term therapy programs, side-effect management for amnestic recipients and staff.

R And D Follow On $500K/yr

[#26] Ongoing R&D follow-on funding for non-pharmaceutical countermeasures and tooling.

Cover Story And Legal $400K/yr

[#9,#16] Ongoing legal retainers, DMCA/litigation follow-up and low-level PR/cover maintenance.

Secure Communications Operations $300K/yr

[#15] Operations cost for secure telephony, classified messaging, and cover identities.

Government Liaison $300K/yr

[#17] Liaison, travel and diplomatic coordination with regulators and foreign hosts.

Psychological Screening And Rotation $250K/yr

[#24] HR screening, forced rotations, and replacement staffing costs to mitigate memetic exposure risk.

Decommissioning And Secure Long Term Storage $200K/yr

[#28] Annual maintenance for a retained master copy (climate control, redundancy, guarded retention).

Insurance Premiums $200K/yr

[#21] Annual insurance premiums and indemnity costs (distinct from one-time reserve).

Training And Education $150K/yr

[#14] Mandatory warning training, simulation exercises and curriculum maintenance.

Red Team And Pen Testing $150K/yr

[#18] Annual penetration testing, simulated leaks and containment audits.

Incident Documentation And Audit $100K/yr

[#27] Classified recordkeeping, secure logs, and regular audits to maintain chain-of-custody and compliance.

Secure Disposal Maintenance $30K/yr

[#3] Maintenance and hazardous-waste incineration/disposal fees for contaminated physical media.

Facilities Maintenance $0/yr

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Supplies And Consumables $0/yr

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⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $19.5M/yr

74.0% probability / year

Normal year with steady monitoring, routine remediation waves, and no major uncontrolled public proliferation.

no_major_breach regular_remediation

🚨 Minor Incident $21.5M/yr

25.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline

Localized leak or a widely-circulated mirror that requires multiple field deployments and targeted legal/PR campaigns.

localized_leak single_major_mirror corporate_site_exposure

🚨 Catastrophic Breach $219.5M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$200.0M vs baseline

Uncontrolled global proliferation requiring invocation of the last-resort fund, large-scale government coordination, emergency amnestic operations and platform shutdowns.

global_uncontrolled_proliferation major_platform_failure failure_of_legal_removals

👥 Personnel 35 total

Role	Count	Notes
Research Scientist / Memetics Researcher	8	[#4] Memetics researchers and senior analysts forming the technical research core.
Security Officer / MTF Agent	12	[#5] Armed site guards and access-control operators providing 24/7 coverage.
IT & Cybersecurity Specialist	8	[#6] Incident response, forensic analysts, and devops to maintain air-gapped systems and network mitigations.
Rapid Response Field Agent	4	[#11] Maintained on-call containment/remediation task force personnel.
Administrative Staff / Legal Liaison	2	[#9,#16] Administrative coordination, legal takedown liaisons and PR coordination.
Medical Officer	1	[#13] Onsite medical officer for amnestic administration and emergency care.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes are comprehensive and map to discrete cost categories, but large uncertainties remain in scope (scale of exposure), geopolitical/covert-action costs, and the magnitude of catastrophic response funding.

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