SCP-4496 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-4496
Expected annual
$219K
One-time setup
$100K
Annual recurring
$213K
Personnel
4
One-time setup costs are modest (~$100,000) driven by crawler development, IT/security setup and contingency reserves; recurring costs are dominated by personnel (technician/researcher/SOC) and cover/legal/OSINT operations (~$213,200/year).
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $100K
Crawler Development $40K
[#10] One-time development of web-crawler/scraping tools and analyst infrastructure to monitor "MxMaster" and related signals.
Incident Response Fund $20K
[#14] Contingency fund for emergency retrieval, rapid transport, emergency repairs and immediate incident response.
Equipment $11K
[#2, #3, #4, #5, #9] Locker fixture/cradle and locking pins (#2), tamper/tamper-evident sensors and initial CCTV hardware (#3), environmental monitors/UPS (#4), handling tools/PPE/ESD protection and small tooling initial stock (#5, #9).
Decommissioning Fund $10K
[#20] One-time provision for secure disposal/decommissioning if required.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $5K
[#8] One-time lab/test-rig equipment and test materials for initial characterization and documentation.
It Security Setup $5K
[#17] One-time IT security and forensic logging setup to protect crawler infrastructure and logs from compromise.
Training Development $5K
[#16] One-time development of handling/training materials and initial trainer time.
Documentation Systems $3K
[#13] One-time secure database integration, logging and versioned documentation systems for chain-of-custody and audit trails.
Facilities $1K
[#1] Locker allocation, labeling and administrative setup; typically covered by site overhead but budgeted as a one-time allocation.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $213K/yr
Staff Wages $117K/yr
[#6, #7, #8, #10] Recurring salaries/benefits for part-time Level-1 technician (inspection) (#6), specialist robotics/electronics technician (reconfiguration/repairs) (#7), part-time researcher for characterization/documentation (#8), and SOC analyst time supporting crawler monitoring (#10).
Cover Story And Legal $55K/yr
[#11, #12] OSINT/online-ops team costs, cover-account maintenance, takedown/legal requests and related costs to manage public exposure and interactions under "MxMaster".
Insurance And Retainers $10K/yr
[#22] Optional indemnity/retainers and contractor NDAs/retainers if external contractors are used.
Crawler Hosting $6K/yr
[#10] Hosting, bandwidth and maintenance for the web-crawler (ongoing hosting, low-latency storage and tooling maintenance).
It Security Monitoring $6K/yr
[#17] Ongoing monitoring, encrypted archival storage and occasional forensic work to protect crawler and logs.
Administrative Overhead $5K/yr
[#21] Fractional site-level accounting allocation (utilities, site security, management burden attributable to hosting the item).
Data Retention $4K/yr
[#18] Storage and indexing costs to retain scraped data and legal-hold archives.
Logistics And Transport $3K/yr
[#15] Average annual allocation for secure transport/escort/insurance for occasional transfers between sites.
Research And Monitoring $2K/yr
[#8, #13] Recurring costs for documentation system licenses/backups and small recurring research supplies; researcher salary is captured under staff_wages.
Psychological Counseling $2K/yr
[#19] OPSEC/psychological counseling and debrief sessions for staff exposed to online content related to "MxMaster".
Training And Drills $2K/yr
[#16] Annual refresher training and records for staff handling SCP-4496.
Supplies And Consumables $800/yr
[#5, #9] Replacement PPE/ESD consumables and spare-parts replenishment (batteries, seals, small actuators, fasteners).
Tamper And Cctv Operational $600/yr
[#3] Recurring storage, logging and minor maintenance costs for tamper sensors and the dedicated CCTV feed.
Facilities Maintenance $200/yr
[#4] Ongoing electricity and maintenance for environmental monitoring and low-power UPS.
Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $213K/yr
83.0% probability / year
Normal year with no major incidents; routine monitoring, maintenance, and cover operations proceed as planned.
no online escalation no activation or transport events
🚨 Minor Incident $233K/yr
15.0% probability / year +$20K vs baseline
Localized online flare-up or moderate takedown/legal activity requiring extra OSINT and legal work and moderate overtime for staff.
MxMaster posts attracting attention moderate takedown/legal requests additional OSINT/cover operations
🚨 Major Breach $363K/yr
2.0% probability / year +$150K vs baseline
Accidental activation or misconfiguration resulting in material damage or injuries requiring emergency response, retrieval, repairs and medical/amnestics costs.
accidental transformation to robot mode activation in unsecured environment injuries or major equipment damage
👥 Personnel 4 total
Role Count Notes
Level-1 Technician 1 Part-time technician performing weekly inspections and minor adjustments (~0.18 FTE represented in staff_wages). [#6]
Specialist Technician 1 Robotics/electronics technician for reconfiguration and repairs (~0.3 FTE represented in staff_wages). [#7]
Research Scientist 1 Part-time researcher for characterization and documentation (~0.3 FTE represented in staff_wages). [#8]
SOC Analyst / OSINT Operator 1 Analyst supporting crawler and monitoring activity (~0.3 FTE represented in staff_wages); additional OSINT team costs captured under cover_story_and_legal. [#10, #11]
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide specific line-item ranges for nearly all costs (hardware, FTE ranges, crawler dev), allowing a reasonably constrained estimate; uncertainty remains in frequency of online incidents and chosen staffing FTEs.
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