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SCP-4018 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-4018
Expected annual
$3.4M
One-time setup
$6.4M
Annual recurring
$3.2M
Personnel
4
Initial facility/equipment and research setup are moderate (~$6.4M one-time driven largely by a strategic media-buyout contingency and incident response reserves). Primary recurring costs (~$3.2M/yr) are driven by staff wages, continuous media monitoring/cyber remediation, legal retainers, rapid-response readiness, and insurance/reserve funding.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $6.4M
Strategic Media Buyout $5.0M
[#16] Worst-case one-time buyout/neutralization contingency for high-tier media entities (lower-bound planning figure).
Incident Response Per Event $500K
[#15] One-time per-incident emergency remediation/PR/rapid response campaign (moderate event baseline). Scenarios will apply per-event occurrences.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $351K
[#2, #13, #14] Conservation/setup for ivory (setup $6k), air-gapped archival/forensic documentation infrastructure ($20k), plus specialized research program startup (startup midpoint ~$325k).
Emergency Buyout Fund $250K
[#7] Working baseline reserve for emergency purchases/auctions/payoffs; replenished as needed.
Modeling And Consulting $125K
[#24] One-time modeling/consulting (Monte-Carlo, systemic scenario analyses) to establish escalation plans and insurance needs.
Facilities $80K
[#1] Retrofit of Site-57 vault: inner containment case, tamper-evident display, camera-free chamber, device-confiscation lockers, lock cascade and intrusion sensors.
Long Term Disposition Plan $50K
[#23] One-time costs for permanent disposition, legal processes, or deep-storage planning.
Equipment $25K
[#3] Access-control and signal-exclusion hardware: biometric/RFID installs, Faraday lockers/pouches, evidence lockers.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.2M/yr
Insurance Reserve $1.0M/yr
[#24] Recurring insurance/political-legal reserve to underwrite extreme remediation and liability (baseline reserve used for planning).
Cyber Operations $600K/yr
[#9] Core cyber/remediation team and contractors (~midpoint $600k/yr). Intensive ops (per-event) are additional and scenario-driven.
Research And Monitoring $490K/yr
[#5, #14] Media/image-detection development and cloud compute plus analysts (midpoint ~$305k) combined with operational specialized research program costs (~$185k/yr).
Staff Wages $365K/yr
[#4] Dedicated team: 1curator/collections manager, 2 site security guards (Level-2), 1 assigned anomaly researcher/liaison; includes benefits (~+30%).
Cover Story And Legal $200K/yr
[#8] Legal retainers for takedowns, gag orders, emergency court fees, multi-jurisdiction counsel (~$200k/yr). Per-incident international fees handled in scenarios.
Rapid Response Readiness $200K/yr
[#6] Readiness retainer for covert acquisition/recovery teams: training, vehicles, standby readiness (~$200k/yr). Deployment costs per event are scenario-driven.
Pr And Sanitation $100K/yr
[#10] Baseline PR/cover-network maintenance to seed alternative records and maintain relationships (~$100k/yr). Per-activation campaigns cost extra.
Shell Entities $75K/yr
[#11] Maintenance of shell organizations, bookkeeping and small staff to absorb publicity (~midpoint $75k/yr).
Auction Monitoring $58K/yr
[#12] Subscriptions and analyst time monitoring auction houses, catalogs, publications (~$58k/yr).
Misc Contingency $50K/yr
[#25] Miscellaneous petty contingency: fixers, emergency lodging, translation/local counsel, small payments.
Records Sanitization $20K/yr
[#18] Reserve for physical retrieval and destruction of external media found outside containment (~typical average $20k/yr; per-incident range $2k–$30k).
Staff Training $20K/yr
[#21] Annual training, SOP revision, legal/ethical briefings, rapid-response drills.
Facilities Maintenance $16K/yr
[#2, #3, #19] Ongoing environmental control/conservation treatments (~$2k/yr), access-control maintenance (~$2k/yr), and site/HVAC/power allocation (~$12.5k/yr).
Logistics And Transport $15K/yr
[#17] Retainer for secure/insured courier/art-transit services and secure crates for site transfers (~$15k/yr). Per-transfer charges are scenario-driven.
Psychological Support $10K/yr
[#22] Counseling and reliability checks for staff exposed to anomalous/confusing records.
Supplies And Consumables $4K/yr
[#20] Archival consumables: inert packing, Mylar, acid-free boxes, tapes, batteries.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.2M/yr
74.5% probability / year
Normal year with no public activations; containment maintained and all monitoring/legal/cyber capabilities on standby.
no_publication routine_maintenance
🚨 Minor Incident $3.3M/yr
20.0% probability / year +$100K vs baseline
Small-scale publication (social post or small local outlet) requiring limited takedown, targeted PR, and a short retrieval/records-sanitization effort.
local_social_media single_small_outlet_publication
🚨 Major Incident $4.0M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$750K vs baseline
Medium-scale exposure (regional outlet, multiple correlated posts) requiring rapid-response deployment, international legal actions, and substantial PR remediation.
regional_media_coverage multiple_outlet_amplification
🚨 Catastrophic Media Breach $28.2M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$25.0M vs baseline
High-profile international exposure or persistent major-outlet amplification requiring strategic buyouts, large-scale remediation, and insurance/war-chest activation.
major_national_network global_viral_amplification
👥 Personnel 4 total
Role Count Notes
Curator / Collections Manager 1 One dedicated curator as listed in #4 (salary component included in staff_wages).
Security Officer / Site Guard (Level-2) 2 Two site security guards as listed in #4 (salaries included in staff_wages).
Research Scientist / Anomaly Liaison 1 One assigned anomaly researcher/liaison as listed in #4 (salary included in staff_wages).
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst-provided estimates cover most cost drivers and include ranges; however large per-incident and strategic buyout items are highly uncertain and scenario-dependent, producing moderate overall confidence.
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